Hellfire
by Harven64
Summary: Helena Brayer has lived almost her entire life under the control of HYDRA but a sign of hope occurs in the form of a facility breach, could this be a chance for her escape?
1. Wiped

**Okay so I've had this idea for a while but I haven't got round to writing because I am lazy af. Also I know this scenario is way too overused but hey, I like reading them. This is set after age of ultron, civil war hasn't happened yet and I don't know if it will in this story but I wanted to include Peter so homecoming is set before civil war, apart from that timelines are the same. This is my first fic so** **please be very patient with me and leave helpful reviews. Anyways hopefully you enjoy the story and feel free to ask any questions.**

Helena woke up lying face down in a pool of blood.

This was by no means an unfamiliar situation but she was still caught off guard for a fraction of a second, she gingerly pulled her hair out of the sticky puddle and winced.

"Shit".

She glanced around, noting the familiar acrid smell of burning linen, and spotted her bed, ablaze. Rolling her eyes she got shakily to her feet and stretched out a hand. At once the fire was extinguished and she collapsed back onto the ground.

 _Now to find out where the copious amounts of blood were coming from._ A quick once over showed her a deep opening in her stomach that was continuing to leak blood. The idiot who'd sewn her up clearly hadn't completed many sewing projects before, wire crisscrossed along the cut so haphazardly she wondered whether they had ever even touched a piece of medical equipment before, she doubted it.

Pressing down on the wound with one hand, she reached with the other for her sheets which were still slightly smouldering and ripped off a section that hadn't been completed grilled by the fire.

Gritting her teeth, Helena cautiously began to wrap the bedding round her stomach, biting her lip to prevent herself from crying out in pain, sound meant punishment. She reached the end of the cloth and tucked it firmly into the folds of the tightly bound material and sighed. Trying to ignore the excruciating pain in her side, Helena cast her mind back to the dream she had been having. It had been the usual recurring nightmare.

 _She was cowering beside her fathers body, his lifeless form slightly turned towards her as she whimpered and gently nuzzled the hole in his head. A trickle of blood was slowly creeping down his once handsome features, she moaned again._

 _A loud bang brought her crashing back and her head snapped up to witness a man clad all in black stride purposefully into their flat, her mother grasped tightly by the neck in his right hand._

 _"Mum!" She cried but to no avail, her mother smiled weakly and mouthed painstakingly "I love you"._

 _A loud crack and the unmistakable sound of a spine snapping and Helena's one last hope lay before her in a heap. The light was gone from her mother's sparkling eyes and she was completely alone._

She could only remember a few things about her parents, the sweet, comforting smell of her mother and the low, rumbling tone of her father. Years of brainwashing had succeeded in erasing most of her memories, leaving her to wallow miserably in broken dreams.

A terrible screeching sound brought her back to her senses and Helena quickly raised her head, alert and wary.

Two giant men walked in holding a pair of glowing handcuffs, she instantly stiffened and retreated to the corner of her dingy cell, it only took three steps.

The men, unfazed, proceeded forward, grabbing her arms roughly and securing them behind her back, she hissed as the restraints came into contact with her skin. She was shoved roughly forward towards the door frame, sandwiched between them, directing her eyes towards the logo printed across across the man's back, a skull surrounded by what she could only imagine were tentacles. She loathed it.

It occurred to her vaguely that this wasn't the usual path she followed, to the training gym or to the lab. Something was nagging her at the back of her mind but the jarring pain of each step she took as her wound was jostled was too overpowering to recover the memory.

Helena realised they had abruptly reached a door.

"in, now!" Barked one of her guards in a strong German accent, she obeyed, not wanting to risk punishment and do further damage to her injury.

The room was small and grimy and contained the overpowering stench of sweat and blood, the most alarming thing however, was the chair set in the middle of the room.

Helena's mind was working slightly quicker now, _the chair was bad, but why? And why couldn't she remember it?_ Then a flash of a memory; excruciating pain, someone laughing and then nothing.

A wicked looking man walked into view and grabbed hold of her shoulders. Instinctively she threw him off, several other people began to emerge from the shadows surrounding her, trapping her.

Helena twisted just in time to see someone grab hold of something and suddenly the cold surrounding her wrists increased tenfold. She bit hard on her lip until she could taste the all too familiar tang of her blood.

She only half registered the call of her name "experiment 768".

 _No that wasn't her name, that was what they called her._ Helena continued to repeat her name, like a mantra in her mind, the one thing she owned. She was now only dimly aware that the blinding pain in her wrists had stopped and that she was now in a sitting position. Something was forced roughly into her mouth and she heard a call, as though from the other end of a tunnel, she knew what it meant. "Begin."

 **How was that? I know there wasn't a ton of action in this chapter but I wanted to explain a bit about her. I think the next chapter will include a bit of avenger action so stay tuned. (Also I will fully explain her powers at some point)**

 **c ya**

-R


	2. The Mission

**Okay, so hi I'm back. I'm gonna try and update weekly if I can but I've got a ton of work rn so we will see. This chapter doesn't contain any Helena in it so sorry about that but I think the next update will be quite soon plus hopefully a bit of a quicker update. Also thanks to Delhirose, ebarnea25 and Reannah for favouriting, following and reviewing.**

"What the hell is that?" Barked Clint. He was wrinkling his nose at the bowl of what appeared to be grey sludge that Bruce Banner was carefully spooning into his mouth whilst reading the morning paper.

Bruce arched an eyebrow but didn't look up, "porridge Clint, it's good for you."

Clint rolled his eyes to the ceiling, " have you ever even _seen_ a bowl of porridge Bruce? It's supposed to look appetising, not something they'd serve in Oliver Twist."

Bruce huffed but the corners of his lips quirked upwards slightly, he loved Barton's dry humour even though he was loathe to admit it.

At that same moment Tony Stark dragged himself into the kitchen.

"Morning Tony," said Bruce, still not looking up from his paper. When his words were met with silence, he finally drew his eyes away from the article he had been reading to witness Tony's look of pure disgust directed at the bowl in front of him.

"What the fuck did you try to make this morning Bruce?" Banner opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Clint.

" Dr Banner has chosen to concoct the exotic dish of gruel for his breakfast today," the archer grinned as he set two coffees down on the counter and proceeded to dump what looked like an entire bag of sugar into one of the mugs, Tony reached for the other, smirking.

"It's.." began Bruce but he was cut off again by the entrance of four more people into the kitchen.

A bright eyed Captain America was followed by a Russian spy dragging her slippers along the gleaming floor while conversing in low tones to the witch at her side who was describing something animatedly and Thor bringing up the rear, wrapped in a giant fluffy blanket looking like he'd been pulled through a hedge backwards.

" Mornin'" Steve said to the room at large, Thor only yawned and reached for the box of poptarts as Natasha grabbed an apple and hopped onto the counter, Wanda followed suit.

"How are you so damn chipper in the morning spangles?" Groaned Tony.

Steve opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted again by Clint, " hang on, I've got a slight feeling you're next word will begin with a 'l' and end with an 'e', correct?". His wide smile didn't falter as Steve cuffed him round the head.

"Where's Bucky?" Questioned Natasha, her cool gaze directed towards the captain, " out for a run," replied Steve.

"And you're not joining him?" Asked Bruce. It was common for the long time friends to go on early morning runs, sometimes accompanied by Sam if he was in a good enough mood.

"Fury's given us a new mission," he replied "I want everyone available to be in the briefing room at 0900 hours." Tony snapped to attention in a mocking sort of fashion "yes sir!"

Steve rolled his eyes and exited the room, pocketing an orange on the way out. Thor groaned and pulled the blanket over his head, _he was definitely not a morning person._

* * *

Half an hour later and the slightly diminished group of avengers was gathered around a table, expectantly awaiting the arrival of Nick Fury.

Bucky has returned and was sat at the end of the table wolfing down a breakfast bar whilst continuing to keep his eyes locked on the door, this particular habit he was still learning to keep under control.

As he watched, two shadows came into view behind the frosted glass and Steve Rodgers walked in, proceeded by the director of SHIELD. Fury dipped his head in acknowledgment to Steve and the man sat down respectfully, 'accidentally' knocking Tony's feet off the table in the process.

"Good morning avengers," announced Fury in his low, rumbling voice, he was the kind of man that could make a room silent with a single and ominous glare.

" We have received information about a HYDRA base in operation in London. SHIELD has been tracking down this base for the past few months, it is heavily guarded with around 200 people in residence, there have also been reports of dangerous fires and explosions. We want you to infiltrate the base and shut it down."

He handed each of them a file, " maps and floor plans are included in the file along with all the information SHIELD has managed to gather so far. You will leave at 0700 hours tomorrow morning, any questions?"

Nick glared around the room but no one spoke "good," he turned sharply on his heel and strode out of the room.

" I always wanted to go to London," said Bucky thoughtfully, " come to think of it I think HYDRA once debated sending me there but Zola said no, it must have been this base," he indicated the file.

"You don't think there would any more human experiments there?" Asked Natasha, her sharp green eyes bore into Bucky and he could tell she was thinking along the same lines as him, what had stopped the Winter Soldier travelling to London?

 **Um, suspense? I don't know hopefully you somewhat are enjoying it so far and please give any helpful feedback.**

 **C ya**

 **-R**


	3. Coming for you

**Okay, so I know I said it would be a quick update but stuff came up so hey (: also thanks to everyone who has followed and favourited. And I'm starting to make these chapters slightly longer, yay. Anyways there's a bit more action in this chapter so yeh.**

She woke very slowly, the room before her swam and she scrunched her eyes in frustration, trying to clear her head. She had no memory of where she was or how she had got there.

She was lying in a dark, damp room which was barely big enough to house the bed to her left side, on the opposite wall was what looked like a solid metal door, there were no windows.

She had a nagging feeling she recognised this room but had no previous recollections to back this theory. Instead she focused on the concrete floor beneath her and thought.

Nothing.

Her mind seemed to be made of mush as she searched desperately for some kind of indication of what she was doing here and why she knew nothing, she didn't even know who the hell she was.

Panic rose in her and she cautiously raised her head. Even the slightest of movements had made her apparently cramped muscles screech in agony. She bit her lip and forced herself not to succumb to the pain, she needed to be strong, but why, she did not know.

She forced her hands underneath her shaking torso and succeeded in pushing herself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall. Now that she was looking at her hands though, she was intrigued to find numerous scars and burns littering her skin, coated in a rich, deep red liquid that had dried around several deep gashes.

On closer inspection, almost her entire body proved to be in a similar state. Running a hand across her stomach, she discovered a particularly nasty wound that was covered in congealed blood, the area surrounding it was swollen and a viscous greeny yellow liquid coated the edges.

Some far off instinct in her brain was struggling to surface and a single word came to her mind, "infection." She didn't not know how or why she knew, but she trusted the instinct, after all it was the only thing she had to go on.

Her continued search revealed copious amounts of bruising, cuts and burns as well as a gut feeling telling her that the ankle causing her mounting amounts of pain was broken, judging by the crackling sound it made when she flexed it.

She sighed, pain was gnawing her from the inside out and she was struggling to breathe, her breaths becoming more hitched and weak by the minute. Exhaustion clawed at her and her struggle to stay conscious was turning into a losing battle.

Her head was still swimming, her eyelids felt like lead. A brief flash of memory crossed her eyes, a metal chair, screaming and the crackle of electricity, before the lull of nothingness became too great. Her body relaxed as she slid down the wall, her head coming to rest on the metal frame of the bed beside her, leaving a long dark streak of red glistening ominously behind her.

* * *

Steve shifted slightly in his seat and adjusted his position against the wall of the plane, the quinjet was only 20 minutes away from London now and sleep was the last thing he needed.

His eyes instead honed in on Bucky, sitting opposite him. To any outsider the man looked calm and at ease, but Steve knew better, he knew Bucky's mannerisms, knew his posture and was able to see beneath the mask adorned on the sergeant's face.

Bucky was absentmindedly tapping each of his fingers against his thumb in turn, repeating the cycle over and over, without hesitation, wrapped up in his own thoughts. This particular ritual was a clear sign to Steve that Bucky was on edge, evidently worried about something and Steve could hazard a good guess at to what that _something_ was.

The Captain leaned forward and cautiously tapped Bucky on the knee.

His friend instantly tensed, his head whipped around and he was not quick enough to hide his momentary look of panic, one that Steve had seen all to often, it confirmed his suspicions as to what the man had been thinking about. Bucky's shoulders visibly relaxed as his nervous eyes scanned Steve's face, however, he still held an element of stiffness in his posture as he quirked an eyebrow at his friend.

"What's bugging you?" Questioned Steve. Bucky sighed, he glanced around the jet.

Thor was curled up a few seats down from him, his mouth wide open, the ground around him was littered with blueberries. The source of these was made apparent by the bag of berries in Tony's hand, the man sat opposite, tongue between his teeth in concentration as he failed again to the land the blue ball in the God's mouth.

Bruce sat next to the engineer, his brow furrowed, reading through a stack of files, completely oblivious to the game beside him.

Wanda sat a little beyond them, lazily spinning intricate patterns with wisps of red that were laced around her fingers, she looked like a spider creating a web.

Clint was lounging in the Pilot's seat, his feet propped up the control panel, he was plaiting Natasha's hair, a look of determined concentration etched onto his face. The owner of the fiery red hair was straddling her chair to give Clint an easier view, she looked annoyed but Bucky could tell she was secretly enjoying it.

He returned his gaze to Steve, " I honestly don't know, I just have this bad feeling I can't shake."

Steve contemplated him. He trusted Bucky, but ... "are you sure it isn't just because we're entering HYDRA territory again?"

Bucky shrugged as leaned back and dropped his gaze to the floor, deep in thought. Steve opened his mouth to comfort the man but was instead interrupted by a triumphant bark.

"Yes!" Shouted Tony making everyone, bar Natasha, jump. Clint fell out his chair and Bruce's files scattered all over the floor, Wanda's trails vanished and Thor shot up, producing a loud clang as he head-butted the low ceiling of the plane.

Everyone glared at Tony.

He shrugged innocently, " I finally landed a blueberry into sleeping beauty's mouth,"

Thor shot him a grumpy look whilst Steve rolled his eyes and Clint carefully picked himself of the floor, grumbling profanities. Natasha glanced down at the control panel, "We should be there in ten minutes folks. Everyone grab your gear and get ready, and for God's sake Stark put those berries away."

* * *

Ten minutes later the quinjet touched down.

They had landed in a deserted recreational ground, in one corner it housed a rundown park covered in graffiti and on the far side of the field was an extremely worn clubhouse.

The ramp of the jet lowered and the avengers, except for Bruce, trooped out, immediately taking in their surroundings, Steve gave the all clear and the group of seven proceeded forward. They all knew the route that was to be taken to gain access to the base, having had all of yesterday to study the case file.

They walked for twenty minutes without the slightest sign of illegal activity. Sabotaging the base would be made a lot easier by the cover of darkness, but the eerie shadows cast by the trees and the distant sounds of scuffles, no doubt from nocturnal animals, set the whole team on edge.

Suddenly Clint, who had been at the front of the pack, threw out an arm and signalled at something ahead of them.

Squinting through the dark showed the team what appeared to be a metal shelter. It looked old and seemed to have become part of the forest itself, Ivory snaked and twisted around the metal body whilst a bed of moss lay on top, was this really the entrance to a major HYDRA facility?

Clint beckoned and the team cautiously followed the agent towards the shelter as he scanned the ground for hidden traps. Nothing suspicious presented itself and the team made it safely to the shelter, at once, Clint and Natasha, who were after all experts in this field, began to search for any hidden entrances or passages.

After a tense minute, Natasha finally spoke up, "found it," she spoke in a low quiet tone but it was still audible to the entire group. She brushed aside leaves in the corner and pointed, at a very faint outline of a trap door on the forest floor.

Natasha produced a wrench from nowhere and had the hatch open in seconds, it revealed a flight of stairs that proceeded downwards and disappeared into the pitch black.

"Weapons out," she began to climb cautiously down the stairs, her team followed, keeping close watch on the area surrounding the shelter.

Wanda created a ball of glowing light and Natasha counted three flights before they were met by a solitary lift, there were no buttons, only a keypad.

The assassin studied it carefully before producing a device that she held above the keypad, the light it omitted allowed her to see the finger prints of previous HYDRA agents and the most commonly pressed numbers, 2,4,7,3. She worked from left to right and top to bottom, trying to crack the code. On the eighth try, there was a buzzing sound and the lift doors slid slowly open.

All seven members managed to squeeze into the less than roomy lift and Bucky jabbed the down button.

"Well isn't this cozy," remarked Tony sarcastically.

"Shut up Stark," snapped Bucky. Tony tried to hold up his hands in feign surrender but was unable to do so, being pinned to the wall by Thor's overly large back.

He instead settled for a chide remark, " why so tense count buckula?"

"I swear to God Stark if you don't shut your fucking trap I will-"

Exactly what Bucky was going to do to Tony, the team never found out.

The sergeant was instead interrupted by the 'ding' of the lift and immediate gunfire.

Wanda instinctively formed a shield around them just as alarm bells began to ring.

"Shit!" Yelled Tony as bullets bounced all around them, " they must have had some kind of camera in the shelter or the lift and known we were coming!"

Steve whirled round, " ok,"he said calmly as though they weren't currently being pelted with hundreds of deadly bullets, " Thor, Clint, Wanda and Bucky, go left and me, Tony and Natasha will go right, got it?"

His question was met with curt nods. "Ok Wanda, drop the shield in 3,2,1... now!" The red bubble that had protected the seven avengers, vanished. Thor threw his hammer down the left corridor, taking out the dozen or so HYDRA agents that lined its walls, meanwhile, Cap's shield proved to be equally effective.

Both teams dove down their respective pathways and were instantly met with more gunfire.

 **K that's another chapter done. If u skipped straight to this chapter the first girl is Helena but she's been brainwashed and therefore doesn't know who she is. Anyways please review, favourite and follow cause it motivates me to put another chapter out. Anyhow, c u later alligator.**


	4. Blood and Bullets

**Hey I'm back and with a slightly quicker update so "yay". Also these chapter are getting longer and longer, I'm rlly spoiling you on this one. Thank you everyone who followed or favourite and to No One Important and the guest that reviewed last time. I have taken your advice and tried a different way of laying it out so please let me know if this way is better. (:**

She heard as though from far away, loud blaring sounds, growing steadily louder. She suddenly realised she was awake and was leaning on the side of her bed. Her necked cracked as she manoeuvred herself out of the awkward position she had been sleeping in.

Absentmindedly she thought back to the dream she had been having, it had been extremely odd, she had been encircled by flames, but never burnt by them, she had instead had control. Casting the dream aside, she returned her mind to the present. Loud sirens were wailing nonstop and her head still felt like shit, a warm orange light was flashing repetitively above the door and she instead tried to focus on the light, drowning out the sound.

She could deduce that this was not a normal occurrence at wherever the hell she was, judging by the panicked voices coming from the other-side of the door, and it sparked a glint of hope in her. She didn't know where she was or who she was for that matter but she knew she needed to get out, and get out fast.

She began to stumble towards the door but before she was even within reach of the lock, it banged open and she was grabbed roughly around the neck by a large and formidable man.

"I don't want no shit from you,"

she translated the German as quickly as she could in her throbbing head and realised to late that he had pulled out a long and dirty length of cloth and forced it between her teeth.

She was in no condition to fight him off and her halfhearted attempt at a struggle earned her heavy blow to the stomach, she could tell he had opened up the wound and that she was bleeding freely again. He wrapped the rag around her mouth twice for good measure then secured it too tightly with a double knot.

He shoved her roughly out of the cell and dragged her behind him, she struggled to keep to his pace as, limping hopelessly along in his wake, hissing into the gag with every movement as her vast number of injuries were jostled painfully

. He was muttering something into a device, she couldn't hear his initial words but caught onto the last thing he uttered

"...768."

Something jogged in her memory, she could literally feel the cogs in her frazzled mind turning as she willed her brain to focus. Something swam hazily to the front of her mind,

'Helena, Helena Brayer.'

It had to be her name. Her momentary lapse in concentration had caused her to come to a stand still, her captive turned around.

" come on you stupid bitch!"

He shouted in German and lashed out at her again this time he stomped on her already broken ankle, crushing all the bones in her foot. Her yell was muffled by the taught cloth inbetween her teeth, she struggled to regain her balance, transferring her entire weight to the uninjured foot. The HYDRA agent made a move to begin pulling her again but instead froze.

Helena knew why and turned to face the direction the shout had come from, whoever it was, they certainly weren't HYDRA, or a captive. She was fairly sure they were about to come face to face with the reason alarm bells were ringing all around the dingy compound. Turning to face the long corridor she saw a distant figure staring at them from the other end of the passage. Helena's eyes widened, who was this person and how were they any different to the man who currently had a firm grasp of her right wrist and was desperately trying to pull her towards the nearest exit.

"Fuck!"

Her captor screamed and wheeled around to face her wrenching a piece of paper out of his pocket at the same time. He began to read.

"Funke, Zaum,"

No, no, no she thought. She knew these words, these were bad words.

" acht,"

No. Helena fought the trigger words so hard it felt like her head was going to split in two, but the mindless numbing sensation was over powering.

"schmerzen, entzünden, sechs, pfanne,"

She was a vaguely aware of four people sprinting towards her.

"klinge, sieben, wissen."

She felt all control leave her. She obediently stopped struggling. The only thing that registered in her numb brain was the soft whisper, right next to her left ear.

"töten".

"Duck!"

Steve yelled at Natasha's back. The assassin promptly dropped to her knees, the familiar disturbance in the air above her head told her the shield had passed over her and she looked up in time to see the vibranium disk collide heavily with a man's face. He flew backwards, taking another two agents with him in the process, they crumpled in a bloody heap at the entrance to yet another corridor.

Natasha sighed and continued her slow progress through the maze of passages, Tony and Steve right behind. This HYDRA base seemed to have been constructed from the same blueprints as the labyrinth. She had to admit, it was cleverly designed, the many twists and turns of the corridors was hindering their advances through the base and making them progressively slower.

Realising they weren't following her anymore, she turned to see Tony guarding the entrance to the corridor they had just entered while Steve pressed a finger to his ear, she heard his voice loud and clear through the comm.

"how are you guys doing?"

The question was directed towards the members of the other team and she paused in the middle of reloading her gun, ears pricked for any suspicious sounds coming from the comm.

"Could be better,"

Clint grunted over the background noise of shouts and bangs.

"These guards just keep on coming,"

She thought she heard Wanda's voice yell something in the distance.

"good thinking,"

He agreed and for a second all that could be heard was the sound of running feet and the creek of a door.

" Where are you?"

" Wanda spotted a room that we could take shelter in...but now looking around this place could be more useful than originally stated."

The four of them were standing back to back staring around at shelves upon shelves of files, each stamped with the easily recognisable HYDRA logo and inscribed with an individual number. Thor walked forward and picked a file off of the shelf at random, his eyebrows creased into a frown.

"comrades, I fear that this base may have been used for some acts of true evil,"

He pointed towards the top of the page.

"Experiment number 254," Clint read aloud, " D.O.B 1987,"

The archer skim read through the numerous cruel and torturous tests the person had been subjected to, one of which included dissection whilst conscious, to the bottom of the page.

"Experiment 254 proved too weak to continue with the program and was terminated. D.O.D 1997."

Clint finished reading and looked up to see his teammates sporting equally horrified looks to match his own.

"They were only ten" breathed Wanda quietly, she heard Tony swear quietly over the comm.

"alright," The Captain's authoritative tone brought the others crashing back to earth.

" so we may be looking at a bigger problem here then we first imagined. We're going to need to check if there are any test subjects that have survived. There must be some kind of cells somewhere, I say we search this compound and then try and locate the exit, sound good?"

His words were met with grunts of ascent. Clint had rounded the desk in the centre of the room and was reading the file left open on it. He grinned in spite of the situation, whoever 'experiment 768' was, he liked the sound of them.

The file was only half completed and didn't list the full extend of the torture but a note at the top of the page read, "brainwashed several times, however, were unable to remove the extensive list of profanities from the test subject's knowledge. 768 is therefore prone to shouting curse words at every possible moment, If 768 resists they must be restrained and made to comply." Clint motioned Bucky towards him and the man retreated from where he'd been guarding the door and approached the desk cautiously.

" I hope this one is still alive," said the agent pointing at the page. Bucky read quickly, the edges of his lips twitched very slightly, "Steve would love this one."

Wanda, who has moved to cover the door, suddenly shouted.

" there's more coming, they know where we are, we have to get out before they corner us!"

Bucky and Clint both vaulted the desk and all four of them looked out through the tiny window at the corridor. Guards were running from either ends of it, running towards their room which was situated in the middle of the long passage.

Thor turned to his companions, "ready?"

They all nodded vigorously and braced themselves. He brought his hammer crashing down on the lock, the team burst through the door and immediately opened fire.

Clint and Bucky were sending bullets and arrows bouncing in all directions with men dropping like rag dolls at their feet. Thor was continuing to hit everyone in his path with his trusty Mjolnir and Wanda was covering for all of them, preventing the onslaught of bullets from injuring her team mates whilst at the same time forcing men to fall unconscious by slamming them into the walls and floor of the compound. It took just over a minute for the group of HYDRA agents to be entirely vanquished and team subsequently regrouped at the end of the corridor that seemed to lead towards the centre of the base, Clint nodded in approval of their work then tapped his comm

"Cap, how are you doing?"

Steve put a finger to his ear " I think we've found the cells."

From ahead he saw Natasha give a thumbs up and signal them to move in. He and Tony crept forward and rounded the corner to meet the assassin who was inspecting the inside of one of the cells before them, there must have been at least 80.

Tony let out a low whistle, "this could take a while."

"Stark you fly down to the end of the corridor and begin checking," Steve instructed, "and me and Romanoff will start from this end."

"Aye-aye, skipper," replied Tony.

He shot off down the passage, coming to a stop at the last cell, at least 100m away. All three began to search, cautiously entering the cell then quickly scanning for any signs of life.

The cells were tiny, barely big enough to squeeze in the single bed that all of them contained, the walls were damp to the touch and the only source of light was provided by a small, flickering bar of light hanging above the wrought iron door. Steve found a heavy metal chain lying under one of the beds, his sense of dread was increasing rapidly with every cell he peered into.

"Shit, guys?!"

The sudden yell had both Steve and Natasha dashing towards the cell that Tony's voice had come from. In any normal circumstances the Captain would have been strongly inclined to tell the other man off, however, something in the engineers voice held him back.

Tony was situated in a cell about a third of the way down the corridor, he was standing close to the bed, inspecting the wall at the foot of it, his helmet raised. Natasha moved forward and in doing so noticed the dark red stain that stretched roughly a metre down the wall, sparkling slightly in the dim light. She heard a sharp intake of breath from Steve behind her as she stretched out a hand and cautiously touched the blood stain, it was mostly dried but still slightly sticky.

"This isn't that old."

Her voice was low and she spoke in a measured, emotionless tone, her face stayed unreadable

" we need to find them," came Tony's voice.

He was deadly serious now, all attempts at light-heartedness gone.

"they can't have gone far," though he looked doubtful.

Glancing across to Steve, the man nodded and tapped his ear again.

" all the cells are empty," he relayed across to the other team. There were four audible sighs, " but," continued Steve, " we found freshly dried blood on one of the cell walls."

He could practically hear his teammates stiffen.

"shit," muttered Bucky.

Clint was the first to recover, and spoken into the tense silence "we're pretty sure we've covered most of the base, found some training rooms, sleeping quarters for the assholes who work here and labs that have _definitely_ been used for torture. There was also a brainwashing device that Bucky recognised as similar to the one HYDRA used for him."

Bucky swallowed thickly at these words, the sight of familiar metal chair had brought back too many unpleasant memories he'd rather soon forget.

"Hey!"

The shout made him turn and he saw Thor looking down a corridor that turned left, adjacent to the one he, Clint and Wanda were standing in.

He heard a shout and recognised the swear word as German. Starting forwards, he jogged towards Thor who had already started to move and rounded the corner. He felt his stomach do a backflip.

A well built man was tugging on the wrist in his grasp. Bucky's eyes followed the mans gaze to rest on the girl he was fruitlessly tugging towards a door. She looked no older than fifteen and was wearing a grey, oversized t shirt which was ripped in several places, displaying prominent ribs as well as various injuries that had stained the dirty cloth crimson. She had on shorts that were also too big compared to her thin legs which were just as equally bruised and beaten as the rest of her body, her left ankle also looked badly broken. Under all the blood and bruising, her skin was olive in colour, but seemed to be turning paler by the second. Her hair was long and matted in places, partly due to the blood that had dried in it and a filthy rag was acting as a gag around her mouth. She had well defined features and warm brown eyes that were speckled slightly with green. She would have been stunning, if not for the gaunt shadows that haunted her face, in the dim light she looked almost like a skeleton.

He didn't hesitate. Bucky recognised the fear in her eyes. His fear. The same look he had worn in his HYDRA days. He felt an overwhelming surge of adrenaline as he ran towards the girl.

Distantly, he heard his teammates fall into step beside him. But even as they began to sprint towards her, the man she was with whipped something out of his pocket. Bucky didn't hear what he said, but he didn't need to. The terror in her eyes was gone, replaced by a blank, vacant expression, one he'd worn all to often. Wanda stretched out her hand desperately and he saw the red wisps rushing through the air towards the girl, almost reaching her. But the man spoke again and this time they were close enough to hear the German word he uttered.

"Kill."

 **Phew, that was a bit of a rollercoaster. I'm afraid I've got a ton of work at the moment so the next update might be a bit slower but we'll see. Also Helena's trigger words are Spark, bridle, eight, ache, kindle, six, pan, blade, seven, knowledge. Again, please review, follow and favourite coz it motivates me more to write. Anyways, until next time...**


	5. Falling

**Hey I'm back. I'm really sorry this took so long to get out but my mocks are in two weeks so I need as much time as I can get cause ya gurl is gonna fail(; anyhow I don't know how regular updates are gonna b so sorry if I'm a bit inactive, it will hopefully get a bit better by Xmas.**

"Kill"

The girl stepped forward purposely, stumbling a little on her mutilated foot, and raised an arm directed at the four avengers. A huge ball of fire sped down the corridor towards them.

Wanda mirrored the girl, throwing her hands forward and creating a shield between the team and the wall of fire that was now swirling menacingly in front of them. Squinting through the torrent of flames, Clint could see the girl standing directly in the middle of the cloud of fire. She showed no emotion, only cold fury in her eyes. He turned to Wanda.

"How long can you hold this?"

"I don't know,"

She looked terrified and the archer kicked himself when he did Immediately realise why. How could he have forgotten the terrors the witch had been forced to endure while being experimented on at HYDRA? She wasn't that much older than the girl on the other side of her shield and Clint felt a sudden rush to protect both of them as best he could, if they got out of this mess.

Bucky and Thor stood helplessly behind the bubble of red protecting them from the full force of the flames, watching the ragged girl as she continued to stand resolutely still, directing all of remaining strength into the fire in front of her.

Her captor was now unsuccessfully trying to open the locked escape route behind him, tugging with all his might on the rusted bolt that refused to move.

"She's getting weaker,"

Wanda's face was still lined with concentration as she desperately tried to contain the flames but Clint could see that the tongues of fire becoming less ferocious. The girl's hands were beginning to shake.

The HYDRA agent in charge of her seemed to have sensed this. A look over his shoulder told him that they only had a couple of seconds before she collapsed of exhaustion and they were left completely unprotected. A sudden click and the old door creaked open revealing the inky blackness of the night.

The girl was not needed anymore, she had served her purpose.

She felt him trying to leave. Turning her head slowly, they locked eyes for a split second. He raised the concealed gun.

"NO!"

BANG

Several things happened at once.

The wall of flames disappeared and almost instantaneously the red shield around the avengers vanished.

Wanda stumbled backwards, Thor ran forward and caught her as she wobbled dangerously.

Bucky and Clint, who had both shouted, dashed forwards and the girl dropped like a stone.

Clint was first to reach her he kneeled down an attempted to apply pressure on the bullet wound that blood was steadily flowing out of.

Instead he let out a yelp of pain when his hands came into contact with her skin. The others stared, horrified at the archer hands which were blistering under their eyes.

"Her skin feels like lava," Clint looked dazed, "How the fuck are we supposed to help her if we can't touch her?!"

He stared wildly around, desperately looking for anything that would give them the means of stemming the constant flow of blood that was slowly creeping across the damp floor. There was nothing.

Thor looked up at his words from where he was tending to Wanda, she was drifting in and out of consciousness. Making sure she would be fine, he carefully placed her on the floor and heading over to the other two men crouched next to the bleeding girl. He stretched out his arm to hover a hand an inch from the kid's pale skin. The sensation that he was warming his hands over a bonfire confirmed Clint's claim. Without hesitating, the God reached back behind him and tore off the Scarlett cape that flowed down the length of his back. Using the folds of the material to cover his hands, he managed to shift the girl onto the fabric and wrap it tightly around her frail frame, leaving only her head in view. Picking her up bridal style, as if she were made of glass, he could still feel the heat being produced from her body radiating through the thick material.

Bucky, who had been watching anxiously, nodded in approval and moved to Wanda's side. She blinked slowly up at him through heavily lidded eyes as he swung her arm round his shoulders so that he could support most of her weight and slowly pulled her to her feet.

Clint tapped his comm.

"We've found a test subject,"

"Are you sure Barton?"

The Captain spoke in his normal cool and collected tone but Clint could hear the underlying stress beneath the words.

"Positive. We'll explain everything back on the jet but we need to find the exit, and fast,"

He followed his words with a quick glance over his shoulder, the girl's eyelids were as still as ever and Thor's cape was now covered in steadily growing stains of dark red. _Damnit_

Wheeling round, his eyes came to rest on Bucky, the super soldier jerked his head towards the darkening passage and slowly began to manoeuvre Wanda back down the corridor they'd come.

Clint silently agreed and began to follow their progress.

"We're going to retrace our steps, I suggest you three do the same,"

The archer barely registered Steve's reply of 'copy that', hearing instead as if he were at one end of a very long tunnel.

Clint began to follow the others down the passage, his eyes never leaving the back of the girl's head as it lolled listlessly against Thor's neck. He couldn't remember ever feeling so powerless.

Bucky lead the pack, pausing every so often to remember exactly which they had come. No one spoke. The air was thick barely restrained emotions.

After 20 minutes of desperate searching, they turned into yet another long corridor, Clint's numbness was slowly being replaced by anger, anger at how slowly they were moving through the base and at the people who had tortured an innocent girl. Even now as he pictured the look of utter terror on the girl's face, before the agent had gained control, he couldn't keep another memory from surfacing. Staring down the length of his arrow into another girl's face, her green eyes glaring defiantly back at him from under her curly red hair. But he'd seen through Natasha's facade, seen the terrified young girl who feared dying. He could already see the similarities between the two women's situations.

But he'd gotten through to the Black Widow, broken down her walls to expose the raw emotion underneath, helped her to see past her self loathing. Could he do the same now? Would he even get a chance to? What were they supposed to do with this girl if she survived?

Knowing HYDRA the girl wouldn't have any family to return to and they couldn't just cart her off to some deprived orphanage.

Looking at his options, which seemed few and far between, an idea sprang into the back of his mind. It was a stupid idea, sure, but he was told everyday, mainly by Natasha, that his plans were stupid and after all, he was still almost in one piece. But would the others want a teenager living in the tower with them? Putting aside the danger that arose, living with some of the most powerful people on the planet, there were all the physiological issues the team dealt with on a regular basis.

All too often he'd had to help restrain a fellow team member as they battled their inner demons that haunted them at night, trapped in the realm of unconsciousness. Clint himself had ended up almost stabbing Bucky one night, that particular nightmare had involved Barney and it had taken a few minutes of the winter soldier repeatedly slapping him across the face to shake him from his trance. What happened if one of them accidentally hurt her? He didn't want to think about it.

"I think we're getting close,"

Bucky was peering round a corner, Thor followed him, careful to keep the girl as immobile as possible . Sure enough they were standing in the passage they had first been directed down by Steve, to their left the blissful sight of the lift greeted them.

"Come on,"

Clint motioned towards the lift just as a voice came over the comms.

"We've made it back to the quinjet, what's your location?"

The archer finished helping Bucky manoeuvre the almost unconscious Wanda into the cramped lift and tapped his comm.

"Just got in the lift,"

"Alright see you in a few,"

"Copy that,"

The lift was agonisingly slow.

A sudden jolt sent Wanda face first towards the rusty floor. Bucky reacted just in time, diving forward and catching her on his chest, allowing her lean against him for support. The girl in Thor's arms hadn't flinched.

The doors of the lift creaked open to display the thankfully deserted stair case. Thor went first, purposely walking up the steep stairs, he was followed by Bucky and Wanda with Clint to bringing up the rear.

It took a lot longer to get up the stairs then it had coming down.

They reached the 3rd flight of stairs and all glanced up to see that the others had, mercifully, left the trapdoor open. Clint scrambled through first then stretched out his arms to relieve Thor of the girl so that the man could pull himself out. Once the God was upright again he cautiously passed the bundle of red back to the God. His hands felt slightly wet and looking down, Clint saw red staining his hands, he grimaced. Bucky and Wanda followed, Clint helped to pull Wanda up and out then support her until Bucky could return to her side. He nodded once at his team then pointed instinctively at the direction of the quinjet. The two men returned his nod and turned in the direction he had signalled. Moving through the woods was tricky enough without having to guide someone else and every twisted shadow or scuffle had Bucky tensing, squinting around into the surrounding darkness for any signs of lingering HYDRA agents. The neglected park had finally come into view as the team reached the edge of the forest.

None of them had ever been so glad to see the quinjet.

 **Yay another chapter is done. If you're wondering why Wanda become so weak I was sort of basing it off how much effort it takes her to contain the force of the bomb in CCW, the fire Helena sends at her is extremely powerful and there's more of it and since Wanda has to hold for a significant amount of time it thought it might drain her a bit. Anyways please review, follow and favourite as there're the only things that motivate me to write more.**

 **C ya**

 **-R**


	6. Hang in there

**¡Hola! So here we are with another chapter, and yes I know I'm being really bad and slow at getting these out but my mocks start on Monday. Help. Me.**

 **Also because I have stupid mocks I won't be updating until about halfway through November but then I will have a little more free time to write this so yay :)**

 **I realised I forgot to say thank you to everyone who reviewed last time so thank you : Delhirose, No one important and the guest who reviewed last time and everyone else for favouriting and following. Also if you're a bit squeamish I suggest not reading the two significantly longer paragraphs. Now onwards...**

"Finally" muttered Clint.

He began to jog towards the end of the plane. As though it had sensed his presence, the ramp began to lower.

The archer glanced over his shoulder to check the others had followed then returned his gaze to the jet, only to find two people standing directly in front of him.

"Jesus-"

Bruce ignored him. Natasha was standing on the doctor's left shoulder, he watched as she scrutinised him, checking for any serious injuries.

Bruce's eyes had found the girl. He took in the sickly colour of her her face, along with the mottled bruises on her chin and forehead, accompanied with the many cuts on her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.

"Shit."

He reached forward and transferred the girl into his arms cradling her as if she were a newborn baby. The fact that she weighed nothing was concerning enough alone but he also couldn't help notice the warmth that was penetrating the blanket, either she had a very bad fever or there was something else to blame, possibly beyond the realms of science.

Bruce turned on his heel and made his way as fast as he could up the ramp, laying the girl down in the middle of the jet.

"Just a quick word of warning,"

Bruce spun around to find Clint had immediately followed him into the jet.

"We think she's been brainwashed and one of those bastards back there managed to trigger her,"

The archer scowled at the floor and continued.

"She created this huge wall of fire that Wanda managed to shield us against."

He gestured at the witch. Bucky was crouched next to where she was now slumped against the wall of the jet, he watched as the super soldier fought to prevent her from sliding down onto the floor.

"-and then she started to weaken and the little piece of shit shot her."

Clint was almost growling as he continued to avert Bruce's eyes.

"Me and Bucky went to help but I couldn't touch her, her skin was boiling."

Bruce noted the way the archer had balled his hands into fists and signalled to Natasha from where she was closing the quinjet's ramp.

She stalked over, her gaze coming to rest of the girl's unconscious form.

"Can you get an IV line in?" Questioned the doctor.

Her eyes hadn't left the girl's lax features and it took Bruce a couple seconds of calling her name before she responded.

"Hey, Tasha, Tasha!"

She blinked and he could see the cobwebs of memories clearing from her eyes.

"Great, go help Wanda, I haven't been able to assess her properly but I'm going to assume she's dehydrated and could do with some fluids. Check her over and make the call, I'm here if you need any help."

She inclined her head to show she understood and began to turn away, but Bruce grabbed her retreating shoulder.

"Check him over as well, I think he might have burnt himself."

His tone was low so that only she could hear as he indicated Clint's back.

Her eyes rested for a fraction of a second on the archer's lithe form, before she nodded again and continued on her path towards the now unconscious witch.

Bruce returned his attention to the bundle of blankets before him. Thor was standing vigil by her side, his worried eyes scanning the pale face.

"I'm going to try and touch her," said the doctor.

He stretched out his fingers, feeling the warmth bleeding from the olive skin, apprehensively he lightly touched the girl's forehead with his index finger.

She was warm, way too warm for a normal person, but he suspected that this girl was anything but normal. He could, however, touch her.

He glanced up and nodded to the God hovering above him.

"She's still hot, but I'm able to treat her."

Thor nodded warily and retreated slightly, giving Bruce some space.

Carefully he reached up and began to unknot the gag still wrapped around her mouth, untwisting it from around her head. He then leaned forward and put his ear close to her mouth. She was breathing, but with some difficulty, he could barely hear the wheezy short breaths escaping her mouth. He retrieved an oxygen mask and tank and pulled the blue strap round, over her head, trying to ignore the smear of blood he's just created on the plastic.

Bracing himself, Bruce began to carefully unwrap the red cape surrounding the girl. He willed his emotions to not get the better of him as he lifted the last fold and got a clear view of her body.

The baggy ripped T-shirt she was wearing was stained crimson with blood, most notably on the right sleeve that was soaked through. He ripped the sodden material at the shoulder to reveal a bullet hole. _Damnit._ Carefully elevating her arm, he proceeded to check for an exit wound. The girl obviously had someone smiling down on her, the bullet had gone straight through the flesh part of her arm, and by the looks of it had missed any bones or major blood vessels. Carefully he began to clean the wound, checking for any shrapnel. Finding none, he proceeded to apply a pressure bandage to the wound and then turn his thought back to her other injuries, all clamering for his attention.

His eyes were drawn to a particularly large rip in the T-shirt, somewhere around her stomach. Congealed blood had caused the fabric to stick to her skin in places. He pulled a pair of scissors out of the emergency box and delicately cut through the T-shirt framing her small body, easing it away from the places it had stuck to the dried blood. Leaving her in just the black sports bra stretched across her chest, he could now see the full extent of injuries across her abdomen. Dozens of scars were etched across her stomach, Bruce fought to keep himself under control as he recognised some of them. Dissection marks. His hands shook slightly as he addressed the most recent addition it seemed, it looked like someone who had zero medical training had carelessly sutured the skin in the hope that it would just magically knit itself back together. Pus was laced around the wound which in turn looked red and inflamed. Cursing HYDRA for what felt like the hundredth time, he began to clean it and apply some antibiotics to the area. Once he'd applied a dressing, he became aware of the girl's left ankle, it stuck out at an odd angle and was turning a shocking shade of green. Bruce may know a thing or two more than the average person when it came to medicine, but he wasn't actually a qualified doctor and there was no way he trusted himself to reset the girl's ankle correctly. He instead settled for splinting her ankle and then proceeding to grab an ice pack out of the mini fridge they had onboard and placed on the foot to reduce the swelling. With the girl's more serious injuries dealt with, Bruce set up an IV and spent the next hour carefully cleaning the girl's numerous cuts and sponging off the dried blood, applying butterfly bandages to any particularly nasty ones, including a sharp cut that ran through her eyebrow that was definitely going to scar. Whilst rolling her onto her right slightly to address the gashes on her back, Bruce became aware of a burn, stretched across most of her right shoulder. It definitely wasn't recent but he couldn't help but feel curious about how the girl had sustained the injury. If he was to trust Clint, and he trusted the archer with his life, the girl had thrown flames at them and judging by the heat of her skin and the lack of full body burns, she seemed to be pretty fire resistant, so how had she sustained such a deep burn?

Natasha finished helping Bucky settle Wanda, the witch was starting to regain her strength and was peacefully sleeping on a spare bed.

Glancing up, she noticed Clint. He was sitting in a far corner of the jet, absentmindedly rubbing his hands and glaring mutinously at the wall opposite.

Cautiously she made her way over to him, careful to step into his line of sight so she didn't startle him. The archer barely acknowledged her as she sat down, though a slight twitch of his jaw indicated that he'd seen her.

"Hey,"

He sighed warily in response but didn't reply.

Remembering what Bruce had said about burns, Natasha's eyes were quickly drawn to his hands. Clint was subconsciously rubbing them and she could now see that his palms were raw and shiny

A spare medical bag was lying a couple of feet away under one of the seats, she stretched out her leg and brought towards them before reaching down and opening it up.

She glanced at Clint, still staring determinately at the wall.

"I need to wrap your hands,"

He started and looked around at her, then to his own palms, as if he had only just noticed that they were burned.

Rolling her eyes in an affectionate sort of way she reached out, taking his arm in her lap and beginning to loosen his arm guards. She then proceeded to delicately loop gauze around his blistered hands, Clint watched on with a detached kind of interest.

Natasha was getting fed up of silence, " So what's bugging you?" She asked, turning his head to face her.

"M' fine," He grunted and shook her off, returning his gaze to the wall.

"Come on Clint," she nudged him gently, "I can read you like an open book and right now you are either feeling worried or guilty about something, and I think that _something_ is currently lying over there."

His eyes flicked towards the girl for a fraction of a second before he sighed resignedly and grudgingly turned to face Natasha, she had always been so damn perceptive.

"She reminds me of you," he said it so quietly he wasn't sure she had heard. But he couldn't stop the memories flooding back every time he looked back at the broken girl Bruce was now desperately trying to save. But why had it taken so long for them to find her? She had obviously been at this facility for years, too many years.

"I know," Natasha remarked, jerking Clint out of his own thoughts, "But you helped me see the light, we can do that again,"

He nodded, although not entirely convinced, "Thanks Tasha,"

He gave her a meaningful look to try and convey what she meant to him. She responded by leaning her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes, whispering quietly in his ear.

"It's been a long day."

 **Ok so I know there wasn't a ton of action in that so sorry. Also I haven't yet decided if I want Clint's fam to exist In this story and I'm really not keen on the whole BruTasha thing from AoU so sorry if you ship them coz we won't really be seeming them as a couple. Anyways please review, favourite, follow coz I really need some exam motivation. Also feel free to PM me or ask any questions or if u just wanna chat.**

 **-R**


	7. The man in the ceiling

**Hey! I still exist. I'm really sorry I haven't updated this earlier but I've been super busy lately and just hadn't had time to finish this chapter so I hope you'll forgive me. Also the endgame trailer killed me, literally killed me. Honestly I don't even know which the worst part was. Anyways I could rant on about the trailer for years but that's a bit boring and you didn't come here for that so...thank you to everyone who followed/favourited last time and onwards...**

" _Hey princess!"_

" _Daddy!"_

 _A five year old Helena ran out of the kitchen into her father's outstretched arms. He grabbed her and threw her in the air, Helena let out a squeal of joy as her long dark hair whipped around her, enjoying the thrill of the flight._

" _How was school today? Was my little tiger well behaved?"_

 _She grinned happily back at him from where she now lay nestled in his cradled arms._

" _I always am," she remarked mischievously._

 _He didn't need to know that she had discovered where the coveted break time biscuits were stored, and that a large packet of stolen bourbons was now hidden under her bed._

" _Is mama back from work yet?" He asked, gently putting her down and crouching to her eye level._

 _The little girl shook her head._

 _She suddenly bounded upwards, "Please can we play 'hide and seek'?"_

 _She gazed desperately at him, brown eyes pleading._

 _He feigned thoughtfulness as she rocked back and forth on her toes._

" _Well..." he grinned at her before continuing "I suppose while we're waiting for mum to get back we can have a quick game."_

 _After all both he and Lucia worked long hours and Helena was more often than not left to find some means to entertain herself._

" _I'll hide first," she remarked, running out of the hallway and up the rickety stairs, calling over her shoulder, " count to thirty!"_

 _An old wicker basket full of dirty laundry stood on the landing. Opening the top, Helena dived inside, flattening out the clothing until she was comfortable, and pressed an eye to the smallish hole in the framework. She could distantly hear her father counting downstairs._

" _Ready or not, here I come!"_

 _She stifled a giggle as she shifted in her makeshift den, she loved this game._

 _A scraping of chairs told her that he was looking under the kitchen table._

 _Beginning to feel impatient, she considered making a sound to let him know she was upstairs but her train of thought was interrupted by a sudden shout._

" _Hey!"_

 _She recognised her father's angry shout but couldn't figure out at who or why he would be shouting._

 _A deafening bang suddenly rocked the tiny flat._

 _She let out a scream that was lost as the sound reverberated round the house._

 _Someone was moving downstairs, she heard the front door creak open, then close._

 _Helena scrambled out of her basket fortress and stumbled down the stairs, tripping on the last two and grazing her knee on the hard floor, but she ignored it._

 _The little girl rounded the corner and dashed into the kitchen, coming to an abrupt holt at the sight that met her._

 _Her stomach did a backflip. Her father was lying on his back, face turned towards her, clearly displaying the bullet hole in his head._

 _Crouching down next to him she shook his shoulders slightly._

" _Dad," she whimpered "Dad - please, wake up!"_

 _It was useless._

 _She collapsed on his chest, eyes brimming with tears, clutching at his jacket as though it were a life line. His eyes, the exact same shade as Helena's, were still open, staring blankly at the ceiling above him._

 _She had no idea how long she lay there, sobbing onto her father's still chest, time didn't matter anymore._

 _A second loud crash sounded, this time outside, and she lifted her tear stained face to gaze in trepidation at the door._

 _Without warning, the front door banged open and a man clothed head to toe in black marched in. In his grasp he thrust in front of him her mum, fingers clutched around her neck. It looked like they had already been fighting, Lucia's hair was messed up and several bruises were already forming on her arms and legs, as well as from the tight grip the man had on her neck._

" _Mum!" Helena cried out desperately, trying to drag herself towards the struggling woman._

 _She watched as her mother painstakingly tried to break free before whispering in a strangled voice "I love you."_

 _The man suddenly brought both his hands to her head and twisted, producing a loud cracking noise._

 _Lucia fell to the ground like a rag doll, her eyes glazed and forever staring._

 _Helena couldn't even bring it upon herself to scream, or wail, or breathe,_

 _She just sat there dumbfounded, realising too late that the man had approached her until he was right up against her face._

" _Hello little girl,"_

 _She scooted away from him but he grabbed the front of her top and pulled her closer._

" _we're going to have lots of fun,"_

 _The last thing she registered was the sight of her dead mother over his shoulder, before a fist suddenly swung into view and the world went black._

Helena gasped, feeling like she had just broken the surface of water she had been submerged under for too long.

The sight of her parent's dead bodies was still lingering in the forefront of her mind.

Sitting up she looked wildly around, taking in the polished white surfaces, the many tubes and wires and the door opposite. Where the fuck was she?

No HYDRA facility she had ever been in looked like this, though there was a distinct smell she associated with the experiment room that seemed to linger in the air.

She had to get out of here.

Swinging her legs off the bed, a sharp shoot of pain suddenly coursed through her small frame from various places on her body, most namely her right shoulder. It was then that she noticed she wasn't in her normal uniform, but instead a sort of gown.

This was change and change was bad.

Looking down, she realised that most of the wires she had noted earlier were connected to her, numerous ones on her chest and another in her right arm. Helena followed the path of a clear plastic tube to the left of her where it popped around her ears and under her nose.

She ripped the wire and tubing out frantically, desperate to escape.

A loud, never ending beep was coming from a monitor on the other side of the bed, probably some kind of alarm, she scrambled away from it, tripping over something that was encased around her ankle. She slammed into a trolley full of what must have been medical equipment, sending it's contents crashing to the floor.

A sudden grunt alerted her to someone else's presence and she looked up just in time to see a man fall out of the ceiling.

Clint managed to turn himself in midair, slamming into the hard floor and come into a rather undignified roll. He cursed himself for having fallen asleep in the vent and scanned the room for the source of the crash. The girl he was supposed to have been keeping an eye on was cowering in the corner of room amidst a large quantity of plastic tubes and syringes.

Cursing again, Clint noticed the many wires now left abandoned and the annoying beeping sound coming from the flatlining heart monitor.

The girl in question looked like a wounded animal desperate for escape, her eyes were continuously flicking from the door to the window to the vent shaft Clint had just tumbled out of.

Crouching low, he edged towards her, displaying his empty hands and making every move obvious and predictable. She withdrew herself as far as possible against the wall, whilst still looking ready to pounce at any given moment.

"Hey," he coaxed "I'm not going to hurt you, we're here to help."

She remained where she was, huddled in the corner.

"I promise we won't harm you, we're not HYDRA,"

Her brown eyes suddenly locked onto his. Raw fear shone like a beacon from her frantic eyes but as Clint stared at the terrified girl he noticed the desperation in her face, desperation for help.

"You're...not...HYDRA?"

Clint had just enough time to register the distinct British accent before quick footsteps and a loud bang cut through the air.

Dr Helen Cho came skidding into the room, snapping the door against the wall. She was closely followed by Natasha and Bucky bringing up the rear.

The girl burst into flames.

Clint was thrown backwards by a wave of heat and slammed into the opposite wall. He felt something hard jam into his right leg. Dazed, Clint tenderly reached behind his head, barely noting the blood on his fingers when he retrieved his hand.

Muffled yells rang through the air. The archer desperately shook his head in an effort to clear it and the world tipped sideways, spinning dangerously.

A pulsing bright light seemed to be coming from his left hand side. He turned his head too quickly to see the girl, still cowering in the corner, absorbed by a swirling ball of fire.

Clint's brain was running overtime as he tried to process the situation and right himself against the wall.

"EVERYONE GET OUT!" He managed to bellow over the increasing levels of noise which were now being added to by the fire alarms

Natasha, who had been making her way towards him, halted abruptly. Clint's hazy vision and the roaring fire gave the archer the momentary impression that her hair was in turn, burning merrily. He smirked, in spite of the situation.

She gave him a calculating look, which he returned, silently communicating to her that he could manage the situation.

The Russian gave him a minute nod before grabbing the speechless Dr Cho and frozen Bucky and dragging them out the room, just as the sprinklers went off.

Clint rolled into a crouch, ignoring the pain in his leg, and shuffled closer to the girl.

The heat from the flames was almost unbearable, but Clint continued to edge steadily closer until he was about a metre away from the swirling tongues

"Hey!" He called desperately, hoping against hope that the girl could hear him over the fire alarm and pouring water , "Look at me!"

For a second, he concluded his attempt useless. The girl, however, ever so slowly turned her head. One of her eyes fell in shadow of the curtain of hair that covered most of her face, but one, glowing, deep brown eye focused resolutely on Clint, reflecting the swirling flames surrounding her.

Clint mopped his sodden hair out of his eyes, not breaking eye contact with the girl. The flames in front of him shrunk ever so slightly.

"That's it," he coached gently, refusing to take his eyes off her. Meanwhile she continued to stare at Clint, searching his dripping wet face and reassuring eyes for any form of a lie. The flames continued to ebb away until only the scorch marks surrounding the girl were any evidence of the spectacle.

The girl remained bundled up in the corner the best she could but Clint could tell that the short outburst of power had cost her most of her regained energy.

She blinked sluggishly at him, eyes drifting out of focus. She slid slowly down the wall, coming to rest admits a large quantity of singed gauze.

Clint leapt forward, careful not to slip of the drenched floor, and heard the door open behind him.

He wheeled around to find Natasha, Bucky and Helen carefully treading their way towards him, behind them indistinguishable faces had appeared at the small window on the door.

The archer squinted, trying to make them out whilst noting the sensation of adrenaline leaving him and instead being replaced by a steady ache, pulsing through his body.

He felt a warm hand grip his bicep and turned his bleary grey eyes to meet Natasha's fiery green. She was staring at him with a mixture of worry and exasperation.

"...had to get stabbed, didn't you?"

He was stabbed? Looking down, his eyebrows rose as he noticed the metal instrument protruding out of his right thigh.

Clint returned his heavily lidded gaze to Natasha. She was kneeling in front of him, one hand still on his bicep, the other framing his face.

Grey crept into the corners of his vision, his mind now solely focused on the soft thumb caressing his jaw.

He heard a distant shout as someone switched off the lights and his world went black.

"CLINT!"

 **Well that was a bit traumatic. Hopefully I can get the next chapter soon but honestly I can't promise anything. Please review/favourite/follow because it really helps motivate me to get the chapter out sooner!**

 **C ya**

 **-R**


	8. Idiot on wheels

**Hi. Thank you so so much to everyone who favourited and followed after the last chapter and special thanks to Ringed Rose Of Lesbos who reviewed. Also I went and saw into the spider verse and honestly it is so good! So if you've got some free time I highly recommend. Anyways here's the next chapter.**

"CLINT!" Natasha called again.

She stared helplessly down at the archers' motionless figure, his head cradled in her lap.

She sensed Dr Cho's presence at her shoulder but didn't turn, a sudden tap on the shoulder had Natasha biting her lip to prevent herself from flinching.

"Natasha," Helen waited to see if she would respond, but the black widow stayed resolutely still, staring unblinkingly down at her fallen partner.

"I need to treat him, now."

The redhead painstakingly turned her head to face the doctor.

Her eyes were full of something Helen couldn't identity, but it set her on edge. Natasha gave a curt nod before allowing Helen to take over.

Averting her eyes, Natasha could see the girl had been replaced on her bed, needles and wires back in their correct places.

She looked dead, her eyes were closed and her skin was several shades too pale.

Natasha grimaced.

She didn't know what to think. She desperately wanted to help this child, they all did, but would they be allowed to keep her if she kept bursting into flames every five seconds? Would they be allowed to keep her at all?

Since they'd arrived back at the compound three days ago, Fury had visited to tell the avengers that they were to hand the girl over to shield as soon as she was fit enough. He had gone as far as to class her as a 'deadly weapon'.

This announcement had been met with huge amounts of uproar but none of them, not even Tony, had the power to overrule Fury.

And now that Clint was down, she didn't know what to think.

* * *

Clint came to slowly.

The smell of antiseptic invaded his nostrils as he struggled to pull himself out of the thick fog clouding his mind.

He felt warm hands press something into each of ears, he immediately recoiled, but the hands were persistent. A wave of sound suddenly flooded his mind; beeping, the sound of shuffling shoes and quiet, controlled breathing.

A familiar face swam hazily above him.

"Tasha-" he groaned, suddenly acutely aware of a dull ache in his right thigh.

A sudden flash of memory. Falling out the vents. The girl cowering in a corner. Flames.

Immediately Clint tried to sit up - and instantly regretted doing so as every sore muscle and injury on his body twinged painfully.

He felt warm hands pushing back down onto the bed.

"You're not going anywhere right now,"

Clint returned his attention to the woman at his side.

"How long was I out?" He questioned, blinking as his eyes adjusted to bright lights glaring down at him.

"About an hour, give or take,"

Natasha carefully laid Clint back down on his pillows, noting the low hiss that escaped his lips before the archer could stifle it.

She glared pointedly at him.

"You're gonna have to take it easy for a while, you're body needs time to recover."

"You okay?"

Natasha rolled eyes, why could he never worry about himself? it was such a Clint-ish thing to do she could barely fight back a grin.

"Yes you idiot I'm fine, funnily enough you're the one that's lying on a bed with a concussion and a puncture wound in the thigh."

Clint's brow furrowed. Natasha sighed. After so many years spent together, she had the ability to see past the mask he usually wore and reveal the true emotion underneath. Today was no different, and she could see all the confusion and pain clouding her partner's gaze.

"You don't remember getting injured?" She questioned softy.

It was Clint's turn to sigh.

"I really hate concussions."

"I know."

The tone of her voice had him glancing back up at her. She watched as comprehension dawned on his face.

"God, Tash, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have fallen asleep in the vents and I-"

He paused when she raised a calming finger.

"I don't blame you for falling asleep, God knows you needed some rest,"

It was true. Since they had got back to the tower three days ago, Clint had barely left the girl's bedside. The other avengers had taken it in turns to join Clint in his vigil, including Natasha herself, and all of them had desperately urged Clint to take a break. But he was far too stubborn, and therefore had barely slept over the last couple of days.

"I'm going to ignore the fact that you just admitted to sleeping in the events again,"

Clint smiled sheepishly up at her, which she returned with a halfhearted glare.

"I just don't like seeing you injured." Natasha finished. She could see in his eyes that Clint understood all too well. How many times had the roles been reversed and he had been relying on him?

"How's are fiery friend doing?"

Natasha sighed again. And then there was _that_ particular problem.

" Helen got her stable again and thankfully she didn't do anymore damage, but they're keeping her sedated for now until we can figure out how to keep her calm enough to prevent setting the whole tower on fire,"

Clint nodded, "you know, thinking about it now,"

she watched as his eyes became glassy as he struggled to remember the days events.

"I think she spoke to me, asked if we were HYDRA or something,"

Natasha watched as he returned his stormy grey gaze to her, a sheepish glint in his eyes,

"If I could try talk to her again, maybe I can convince her to not blow the place up,"

" hell, no."

"But Nat-"

"Do I have to remind you who was unconscious five minutes ago?"

"But I hate this place,"

"Well maybe if you didn't get your stupid ass injured so often you wouldn't be in here so much. God knows, you've probably got your own special section in their records,"

She watched with amusement as he morphed his facial features into a look of innocence that was fooling no one.

"You know I'll sneak out anyway so why not save me the hassle,"

Natasha rolled her eyes affectionately, he had her in a corner now.

She watched as Clint smirked and proceeded to nod towards a folded up wheelchair in the corner.

"My carriage awaits,"

Natasha huffed an indignant laugh, if Clint was agreeing to a wheelchair, something everyone knew for a fact that he hated, he really wanted to help this girl.

"Sometimes don't know why I bother with your insufferable ass," She commented, striding to towards the wheelchair, but not before flicking the archer in the temple, which did nothing to dislodge the smirk that was playing about his lips.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye, Clint gingerly swing his tightly bound leg to hang off the side of the bed, noticing his jaw twitch as he settled himself again.

She understood why Clint didn't want anybody to know that he was suffering, she knew he believed that exposing his pain made him weak and vulnerable. Natasha, herself, struggled to not conceal her pain, even from Clint. The red room had made sure of shook herself, trying to rid her brain of any images of her past life and instead returned her concentration to the archer now sitting in front of her.

She knew better than to offer Clint a hand, but kept a reassuring hand on his bicep just in case.

Once settled he looked up at her expectantly.

Natasha nodded, "let's go find Helen and Bruce."

* * *

"You know, you're really not supposed to do wheelies with that thing,"

Clint grumbled and grudgingly set all four wheels of the wheelchair back on the ground.

"I hate this thing, the least I can do is have a little fun with it,"

"You hate everything Clint,"

"Not everything, I like dogs, and pizza, and arrows and... black spiders," He finished with a smirk.

His comment was met with a one fingered gesture from Natasha over her shoulder.

Clint rolled down the corridor to join her at the door she was standing in front of.

"You sure about this?" Natasha questioned. He watched as her eyes drifted to his bound thigh, now concealed with a pair of blue scrub pants.

Clint nodded resolutely, his face set. He was going to help this girl if it was the last thing he did.

Natasha looked convinced and raised her Knuckles to rap sharply on the door.

Clint could hear the shuffle of feet and low voices before the door opened slightly and Dr Helen Cho poked her head out.

Her eyes scanned over Natasha first, then slid downwards, coming to rest on Clint.

Clint smiled weakly at her, knowing full well she wouldn't approve.

"For God's sake Barton, any normal human being would still be groaning in bed after being stabbed."

"Yeah well he's not exactly a normal person," grinned Natasha, "more of a walking punch bag that has good aim,"

"Not true," Clint protested nudging Natasha in the thigh.

"Honestly Barton, you spend so much time in here I have half a mind to rename this ward after you."

Clint crossed his arms and sniffed in an affronted kind of fashion, as Natasha whispered into his ear "I told you."

Another face popped out from inside the room.

"Helen what's going on," Bruce paused when he caught sight of the archer.

"Really Clint? I think you should go back to bed,"

Bruce tried to close the door but Clint pushed himself forward and wedged his wheel between the door and the frame.

"Look, when I woke up, I remembered that before she set herself on fire she talked to me."

He watched as both doctors eyebrows rose in similar displays of scepticism.

"I promise you, just give me five minutes to talk to her, and if she doesn't respond, well at least we tried."

The two doctors shared a meaningful glance before Bruce sighed.

"We've been running some tests, so she drugged to the gills right now," he paused minutely, demonstrating that this was against his better judgement, "but it you think you can keep her calm long enough to explain a couple of simple things and allow us to run a few tests then I'm willing to give it a try."

"Thanks Banner."

Clint blew out a relieved sigh as Helen and Bruce moved out of the doorway, allowing him and Natasha to finally enter the girl's room.

She looked as pale as ever.

Clint rolled slowly over to where her hand lay on the bed, an IV line snaking away from the back of it.

He was suddenly possessed by a very strong incline to hold it.

Clint shook himself mentally, he didn't do physical contact, especially with strangers, and he had no doubt that the girl would reject it as well.

"Hopefully she'll wake up in the next couple of hours but I can't promise anything," said Helen.

Bruce threw Clint a pager. The archer caught without looking up and brought it into his level of view.

"If any of her vitals change, call us immediately." He instructed, indicating the pager.

"And let us know if anything changes with him," Helen whispered in a low murmur to Natasha, nodding at Clint's back.

Natasha fixed the doctor with her piercing gaze and nodded curtly.

Both Clint and Natasha murmured thanks as both Bruce and Helen quietly exited the room.

Clint released the breath he didn't realise he'd been holding as the door swung shut and returned his attention to the injured girl.

He felt Natasha sit down next to him and watched as she rested one hand on top of his. She was of the only exceptions Clint made for the no-touching rule.

"I'll go once she starts to wake up, but for now I'm staying."

Clint turned to face her, communicating through his eyes how much her standing by his side meant to squeezed his hand in return and settled more comfortably down in her chair, propping her feet up on a spare table. After about an hour, Natasha started to feel her eyelids droop, Clint hadn't been the only one missing out on sleep over the last few days and the sudden additional stress of him being injured as well had reslly taken a toll on her. she rested her head on his shoulder and allowed sleep to come to her, trusting Clint to watch her back.

Clint sat in silence with only his thoughts for company, idly tracing his fingers through Natasha's cascading hair.

* * *

It wouldn't be for a couple of hours until the girl finally began to stir.

Clint didn't want to wake Natasha but knew that her presence might alarm the girl and less people the better, plus the redhead slumbering quietly on his shoulder would kill him.

"Tasha," he called softly, knowing better than to wake her with touch. Her eyes snapped open almost immediately, slightly hazy green eyes stared expectantly at him. He nodded towards the girl on the bed, who seemed to be in the process of trying to open her eyes.

The assassin nodded in understanding and got steadily to her feet, walking out of the room without a sound and giving Clint a reassuring shoulder squeeze as she left.

Natasha let the door swing closed behind her then made sure she had a clear view into the room without revealing herself to the girl inside. Clint had taught her how to read lips and she was more or less able to follow along with what Clint was now saying.

Clint listened for the closing of the door, not daring to take his eyes off of the girl's stirring form. An eyelid cracked open and he was able to see a slither of brown.

The eye was suddenly forced open and Clint became aware of the rapidly increasing beeping that was coming from the heart monitor beside him as well as the girl's quickening breaths.

"Hey," he said trying to grasp the girl's attention, "your safe, but I need you to calm down, just focus on breathing."

The girl's wide eyes swivelled round to focus on Clint. A hint of recognition flashed across the brown gaze and Clint felt a lurch of hope in the pit of his stomach.

"You're not at HYDRA anymore," he said slowly, noting how the beeping was becoming less frequent, "we're not HYDRA." He repeated.

The girl's breaths slowed and she swallowed, still looking desperately around the room for a means of escape.

Clint blew out a nervous breath.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked quietly, hoping to distract her.

The girl shook her head fervently.

"Your at avengers tower, in the infirmary."

The girl's breaths began to quicken again.

"We're not here to hurt you, I promise," Clint coaxed "and I never break promises." He shifted in the wheelchair.

"Now, can you tell me your name?"

The girl looked at him with the same terrified eyes, she seemed to be considering him.

"Experiment 768."she mumbled finally.

Clint silently cursed HYDRA in every language he knew and tried again.

"Your real name."

The girl's eye widened and Clint felt a stab of pity as she slowly shook her head in disbelief.

"H-Helena, Helena Brayer."

 **Ok so this actually turned out to be quite a long chapter which I don't if that's good or bad. I know this chapter was very focused on Clint and Natasha but I promise the next few chapters I going to be focused on Helena. It would be really nice if you could follow or favourite or maybe even review? Anyways until next time.**

 **C ya**

 **-R**


	9. Trust is earned

**Well hi, It's been a while. I'm really sorry I've ghosted for like four months but honestly I've had so much work and I've been trying to stay focused on my GCSES, and I've clearly failed. Honestly I needed a break cause work is killing me. If you're also doing you're GCSEs pls drop me a line and have a rant. Anyways, I know not much happens in this chapter it's more of a filler. Once my GCSEs are over I will be doing daily updates but for now this will be my last one until sometime in June so pls don't think I'm dead (unless I've died after endgame which is very likely, I am gonna cry so much helppppppppp)**

 **Side note: if you haven't already pls watch the umbrella academy, it is bloody amazing, I binged watched it all in 2 days. Im so hyped for season 2 and I really wanna write a fic on it cause I already have some ideas.**

"H-Helena, Helena Brayer."

Helena tensed, waiting for the punishment that was surely due, but there was nothing. She opened her eyes to find the man in front of her sitting in the exact same position, his blue grey eyes still watching her curiously.

She didn't understand.

Wherever she was, "the avengers infirmary," according to this man, it definitely wasn't HYDRA, and yet she needed to escape this place. She had a nagging feeling she recognised the name "avengers" and she was in no hurry to stick around and find out why, all she knew was that she needed out.

Helena began to slow down her breaths, if she wanted out she was going to have to come up with a plan, and she couldn't do that if she was hyperventilating to the point of passing out.

Instead, she began to analyse the man in front of her. He was sat in a wheelchair with a laid back kind of air but she had a feeling that he never really let his guard down, especially with a hostile force in the room. His eyes were tired and old, far too old for his face, he had the face of a man that had seen a great deal in his lifetime and had never really been able to let it go. His dirty blonde hair was matted in places with blood that was yet to be washed out and looking down she could see a small patch of blood on his blue scrub pants just above his knee.

"Well Helena, I'm Clint."

Helena looked up. Interesting, none of her enemies had ever been so forthcoming with telling her their names before. She nodded to show she was paying attention.

"Ok," He replied. She watched as his eyes darted to the door and for the first time Helena noticed a woman with fiery red hair standing at the window. Helena didn't just not notice things. She glanced around her and found that the tubes from early had been replaced. These people were obviously trying to poison her and purposely slow down her brain. She needed to get out of here as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

But another woman was walking in, tall, unlike the other, with her black hair pulled back into a slick ponytail.

Clint and the woman seemed to share a meaningful glance before he turned back to her.

"Helena, this is Dr Cho, Dr Cho, this is Helena, she justs wants to check that body is starting to recover." Clint nodded at Dr Cho before wheeling himself slightly backwards, but still not far enough to be discounted as a threat.

"Hi Helena, my name is Dr Cho," For fucks sake why did these people think she had the memory of a goldfish " and I just want to ask you some questions ok?"

Helena nodded, managing retaining her calm exterior, she just needed to focus and she'd be out of here by tonight

* * *

Clint started making his way out of the room, he needed to give Helen some space and talk to Natasha.

Even as he wheeled himself out of the room he could feel Helena's eyes on his back. A quick glance behind showed the girl sitting resolutely still as Helen moved about her, all her focus still directed at him.

He nudged the door open and came face to face with Natasha.

"I assume you were lip reading?" He asked.

She arched at eyebrow at him, confirming his suspicions, after all, he had been the one to teach her after going deaf. It was a useful skill to have on missions as a way of communicating and listening to enemies conversations without having to get too close.

"I still don't think she trusts us."

Natasha nodded in agreement, she had also sensed the way Helena seemed have completely shut off, she was being way too compliant considering a couple of hours ago she had almost burned down the tower.

"We need to give her a reason to trust us," she replied, "she doesn't have any evidence yet that we're any different to HYDRA, we need to show that doesn't have to be frightened of us.

"But how do we do that?" He asked, looking slightly helpless.

Natasha smiled smiled despite herself, "You managed to get me to trust you, I'm sure u could it again with," she said, indicating the door, "and this time you'll have me."

She walked over to him, ghosting her fingers over his ragged hair. He granted her a small smile, however, he didn't look entirely convinced.

"Look, why don't you go and have a shower and get some sleep, you're obviously exhausted and your body needs time to heal."

He allowed himself one last look at Helena, who was mechanically following Helen's orders, before turning to Natasha, a sly smirk on his face.

"I could use a bit of help, and I'm not _that_ tired."

He could practically hear her roll her eyes as she moved around the wheelchair to help him push.

"You're lucky to have me you know, any other girl would get sick of having a partner who looks like he's gone through the blender 24/7." She replied affectionately.

He sent a one fingered gesture at her over his shoulder before whispering a soft "I know."

The light pressure on his shoulder indicates she'd heard and he relaxed in the knowledge that she was his and he was hers.

 **Well this is it for now, I'll see you guys on the other side of the war (Hamilton reference intended)**

 **C ya**

 **-R**


	10. The road to recovery

**Well it's been a hot minute. Hi everyone I ain't dead, although exams are killing me and I'm only halfway through. I know I said I wouldn't be updating till after my exams are finished by tbh I'm really bored and idk I wanted to get my ideas out. Now this chapter is actually pretty long for once which i feel kinda makes up for me being a bit MIA. Also shoutout to the guest that reviewed most of the previous chapter and Aunknowntimelord who also reviewed.**

 **I also just wanna do a little review of endgame. If you haven't seen it or just couldn't give a shit please stop reading.**

 **Phew okay so I actually loved endgame so much, I know there were some mixed reactions but overall it was everything I wanted it to be and more. I knew we were screwed the second the first scene had Clint in it. My fave parts were defo Cap wielding Mjolnir and basically the whole end battle which was totally epic, I mean Steve just standing alone w a broken shield against all of Thanos' army was just AMAZIN. I also loved the 2012 section idk I just found it hilarious. The thing I was kinda pissed about is Cap going back in time. That was actually my main theory as to what wld happen to him and while I did enjoy seeing with Peggy again I think we can all agree that he defo wouldn't have just left Bucky like that. But hopefully the falcon and winter soldier show thingy will do them both justice and I'm also really hyped to see Sam as Cap. Okay, so I can't put it off any longer, Natasha's death scene. HO-LY SHIT. So I was living for the Russos acc paying attention to the relationship between Clint and Nat for once but obvs that was too good to be true. I realised as soon as the thing saying vormir came up that one of them was gonna die and I just sorta sat there going "no no no no" and my friend didn't understand yet. Anyways I don't really cry that often, I didn't cry in infinity war even though I wanted to but honestly I was legit drowning in tears. I mean I wasn't sobbing I just couldn't stop them running down my face and my friend had to tell me to stop hyperventilating. As you can probably tell by now I am a huge Clintasha fan and watching them tryna kill themselves was like watching my best friends dying in front of me and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I didn't really recover after that because it came as such a shock. Also shoutout to my mum who predicted that Tony would have a child and then die by sacrificing himself for everyone. If you have actually read all this thank you very much, I don't have many people I can talk about it with and I'd love to know your opinions of Endgame.**

 **Now onward with the chapter...**

Helena gasped awake in a blind panic. Immediately her eyes found the little is window to her left framing the dark sky outside, telling her it was some time in the earlier hours of the morning.

A few fragmented memories had haunted her while she slept, this time of being experimented on. Men, dressed all in white had loomed over her, bearing wicked looking tools, white hot pain had suddenly erupted across her abdomen causing her to wake.

She pulled her shirt up to reveal one of the main scars littered across her stomach and forced her breathing to slow, she wasn't there anymore.

Helena had been wiped so many times now she was beginning to become immune to it, with each wipe her memories would return faster. That didn't make the painful experience of loosing her memories then having to relive them all over again any easier though, often forced to watch over and over again the deaths of her parents as well as the other children being experimented on and sometimes being tortured herself.

Glancing around she saw that the man called Clint had left another package, this time containing some kind of ring with what looked like sugar on it. She never touched whatever he left, certain they were intended to poison her.

It had been a week since she had first been brought to the compound. Slowly she had been introduced to a few of it's other inhabitants, accompanied each time by Clint who seemed to have taken a particular interest in her.

There had been a woman with bright red hair that fell in loose curls to her shoulders, the redhead hadn't really said much stared at her intensely with bright green eyes that contained an emotion Helena couldn't decider.

Next had been a tall man with short blond hair who had stood in a similar way to the HYDRA guards, it made her uncomfortable and she had immediately adopted the best fighting stance while still in bed, he'd left quickly after that.

No one new had visited her after that the only people who visits to her room were from Dr Cho and Dr Banner who she believed didn't present too much of a threat, and Clint.

Helena had remained confined to her bed in the same white walled room, it was driving her mad, even if she she didn't show it. For a week now she had been forming a plan of escape because whatever these people said, she didn't trust them in the slightest.

There was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that this place and the people it housed were to be considered the enemy and it had only increased as the days progressed.

So she had complied with whatever they wanted; allowing herself to be treated by the two doctors who would ask question after question about how she felt and if she was healing. Helena had regained enough strength in her legs that she could walk again, although her foot remained in what she was told was a cast. She longed to rip the thing off her leg, it was heavy and annoying and would certainly make her plan a lot a harder.

For the last couple of days she had been lying about the use of her legs, pretending to fall over every time she was asked to stand. When she was left alone at night she had been practicing walking around the room, it was a difficult task as there was very little space and the weight of the cast put her off balance. Often she would fall over and wait, frozen in order listen for any one that had heard her.

But now, now she had discovered a way out.

The only window had been sealed and was no way strong to punch through the thick layers of glass, she could use her powers but didn't want to run the risk of whatever alarm had gone off when she had been startled before and find herself captured all over again. The door was also always kept locked and was made of strong metal, the kind that she wouldn't easily be able to melt without draining herself completely.

On the fifth day she had been staring absently up at the ceiling as a woman who had introduced herself as Dr Cho redressed her wounds before suddenly noticing the vent shaft in the middle of the room. It was the same one Clint had fallen out of on their first meeting, indicating it was large enough to fit a person.

Having no knowledge of the layout of the compound it was going to be tough navigating her way through the ventilation system, especially lugging around a broken foot, but she was relying on her instincts, all she had to do was make it to the roof and she'd be free.

She pulled back the sheets of the bed and stepped cautiously onto the shiny floor, all the while her eyes roamed the room, searching for any indicators that she was being watched. She pulled over a seat with wheels attached to its bottom and used the brake to station it directly under the vent.

Hauling herself up, which took her an embarrassingly long time she stood up awkwardly, her cast and useless leg weighing her down more than ever. She stood on one foot and turned her head upwards to the vent which was now only a few inches away from her face.

Taking out the small blade of a scalpel she had found disposed of in a yellow bin, she began to unscrew the vent cover, these people clearly weren't that stupid if they had taken precautions to stop her escaping this way, however they had become sloppy, lured into a false sense of security due to her inability to walk and overall complacency.

The last screw came free and she carefully pushed the cover up into the vent, leaving a sizeable gap she could easily fit through.

Now came the harder part, whilst she had been lying about her legs, Helena was still gaining strength. Severely undernourished she had begun to put on weight but she still had a long way to go. Add that to all of her still healing injuries; including the bullet hole in her shoulder and the infected wound on her abdomen and she was still as weak as a kitten meaning pulling herself into a vent with the added weight of the cast was going to be a little tricky.

Gripping the rim off the vent she pulled, managing to get her head and shoulder into the confined space. She hung awkwardly, her legs still dangling in the air, breathing hard and listening for a sign that she had been heard.

Deciding the coast was clear, Helena readjusted her grip on the metal and pulled again. She managed to pull the rest of her torso in, which was accompanied by a muffled "Shit, shit shit," as her weight bore down on her stab wound, then continued to wriggle the rest of the way in, hauling her legs in after her.

Breathing hard, she silently returned the cover of the vent and stared down the narrow metal passage that stretched ahead of her, eventually splitting into two routes in opposite directions.

She steeled herself and began to crawl forward, she had never really been afraid of small spaces, even preferred perhaps, after spending so long confined to a tiny cell it had often been difficult on the base when she had found herself in a larger room.

She felt more threatened, unable to easily keep all of the room within her eyesight, smaller spaces yielded fewer surprises.

Reaching the end of the section of the shaft she was in, Helena stared down each route.

Both lead to more metal pathways that turned away, preventing her from seeing the direction she had to travel.

A cold draft of air that carried with it the smell of damp greeted her from the right vent. She turned into it and began to pull herself forward again, following the scent of fresh air and freedom.

* * *

6 hours earlier

* * *

"We can't keep lying to Fury forever, I'm pretty sure he's already realised she's awake and sooner or later he's just gonna blow up the tower and take her by force."

It was dinner time. Tony, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Bruce, Bucky, Sam and Wanda were all lounging round the kitchen, Thor having returned to Asgard the previous day.

Tony had called a meeting and tempted everyone down with the delicious smell of slight burnt pizza.

"Yeah, I know," said Clint from where he was perched onto of the counter, half a piece of pizza still hanging out his mouth, "but you know what SHIELD will do to her right?" He flipped another piece from the box and caught it perfectly between his teeth. "Either they'll stick her in a cell and experiment on her, just the same as HYDRA but without the brain washing."

Across the other side of the room, Bucky tensed, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"But what do we do then, send her to an orphanage?" Said Steve from where he was leaning on the counter next to the sink.

"You can't put a kid like that in the system," put in Wanda, "she'd end up killing all the other children and no foster are ever going to want to deal with the psychological problems she has."

The group murmured in agreement and there was a moment of thoughtful silence as everyone quietly ate their pizza.

Natasha, who was sitting crossed legged next to Clint on top of the counter nudged him in the thigh. He turned a slightly disgruntled face to look at her.

She raised her eyebrows pointedly and he sighed in exasperation.

Last night, whilst they were alone, he had voiced the idea that had been plaguing him since bringing the girl in. He knew it was a stupid idea and probably would never work but he couldn't help but feel like it was the girl's last chance.

Helena was clearly not mentally stable; they'd expected her to be, but it meant that in places where wouldn't receive the right support, she wasn't going to cope.

She needed help and support and right now the only place she could get that was here in the avengers tower itself, so would it be so bad if they allowed her to stay?

It wasn't like she would always be left alone, there were usually at least a couple of avengers killing around the upper, private floors of the tower. But most importantly, they were likely the only few people to really understand what she had been through and how to deal with it.

Clint knew that if they really put in an effort, the team might just be what the girl needed to pull her back from the edge.

Natasha had taken her time to muse over the idea. Clint knew she was having a hard time seeing Helena so broken, having come from a similar background herself.

She had looked back at him, seen the pleading in his eyes and nodded firmly, telling him without words that she would stand by him no matter what the others said.

Clint cleared his throat and looked around the room, all eyes were fixed on him, eager to hear his solution.

"Wanda is right, we all know she wouldn't cope in the system but equally, we can't just hand her over to SHIELD,"

"So what do we do," questioned Sam.

Clint swallowed but felt the reassuring pressure of Natasha's body next to his.

Without looking up he spoke.

"I think her best, and really only chance at this point, is if we take her in ourselves.

His words were met with silence as everyone stared open mouthed at him.

"You're saying we should look after the kid ourselves?" Spluttered Tony, pizza frozen mid way to his mouth, "are you insane? We can barely look after ourselves, let alone a kid."

"We can manage," said Natasha, fixing Tony with a hard stare, "the tower is a big place and she needs help from people like her, you can't deny her a second chance Tony."

"Will she even want to stay?" Interjected Bruce, "I mean we can't prevent her from leaving if that's what she wants."

"We can't," replied Clint, "but we can give her every reason to."

Clint glanced around the room, the others were thinking hard, he locked eyes with Steve. The super solider stared at him for a long moment before seeming to nod to himself.

"I agree with Clint and Natasha; she deserves a chance, if we can give her that then it is our duty."

Tony rolled his eyes, "alright spangles that's quite enough righteousness for me," he scanned the room, Wanda, Bucky and Sam seemed to be coming to the same conclusion as Steve.

"Alright we keep the kid, but if she sets the tower on fire again I will be making you put it out single handedly with a bucket."

He pointed at Clint who raised his hands in defeat, a small smirk crossing his lips.

* * *

Clint woke suddenly, jerking upright asa heras gasped for air, eyes whirling frantically around the room as he tried to get his bearings.

He felt Natasha shift beside him and focused on centring himself firmly in reality.

He felt her hand on his back as his breaths became deeper and his heart rate began to slow down.

 _What was it_ She signed due to his lack of hearing aids.

Both of them often had nightmares, Natasha's stemmed from her time in the red room where as Clint was often haunted by Loki and the events surrounding him, occasionally Barney would make an appearance and he would awake in a blind panic, scratching at the scar left from the knife barney had stabbed him with all those years ago.

 _Phil_ he signed back , not looking up. Natasha shifted and pressed her head against his neck, both sat in silence for a few minutes, quietly grieving the loss of their handler and best friend.

It had been a year and a half since the attack on New York but Clint still found himself dreaming about his fallen friend. Phil has been the dad he had never had. Clint had accepted now that he was gone, but his subconscious still longed to see him and his comforting voice.

He reached over and slid his hearing aids into his ears.

"I'm gonna go onto the roof for a little bit, go back to sleep," he directed at Natasha.

She half opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it and shut it. Clint swung his legs off the bed and began lacing up his boots.

He was about to stride out the door when Natasha called after him "Jacket!"

He turned around just in time to be hit squarely in the face. He glared halfheartedly at her to which she shrugged and rolled over.

Clint quietly shut the door behind him and proceeded down the corridor to the stairwell, limping slightly, in order to take the pressure off of his right thigh which was still healing. He and Natasha had this floor to themselves, both of their rooms having been placed next to each other when they moved in. He tended to just live in Natasha's however, with both of them using his more for weapons storage.

He was glad they were alone on this floor, whilst they didn't try to hide their relationship, they were very private about it

It hadn't taken long for the other Avengers living in the tower to realise that the assassins were sleeping together once they moved in, but they rarely demonstrated any public displays of affection and refused to answer the questions Tony was constantly badgering them about.

He reached the stairs and began to climb, there floor was one of the highest in the tower, he had to give Tony credit there for designing it so that he could easily been on the roof in a couple of minutes if the tower was threatened.

He reached the door that would lead him onto the roof and breathed in the cold night air, filling his lungs and just breathing.

He crossed to the edge and sat; allowing his legs to dangle over and feast his eyes on the light show of New York below him.

He had been sitting for almost an hour when heard a loud clang, followed by a curse from somewhere behind him. Whipping around he scanned the roof, looking for any signs of movement.

Nothing.

Another clang of metal and his head turned instead to the vent shaft that emptied out onto the roof. He had climbed through this on a several occasions but the rest of the team found it strange that he enjoyed dragging himself through the ventilation system, especially when he would scare them from above, though that was often met with whatever the person was holding being thrown in his general direction. But that meant that whoever was in the vents wasn't a team mate.

He crossed to where he could get position himself next to where the shaft emptied out without being seen by whoever was in it and waited with baited breath.

Another couple of muffled curses that he couldn't quite make out echoed from within before a body tumbled out and onto the roof below.

Clint jumped on them; tackling the person so that they were held immobile with their arms behind their back.

The figure wriggled uselessly in his grasp.

"Fuck off!" It spat into the ground. Clint's hold loosened fractionally as he recognised the voice.

"Helena?" He questioned cautiously, still keeping the person's hands locked behind them.

"Get the fuck off of me." Came the voice again, he detected an English accent, confirming his suspicions. Blinking into the darkness, he could now make out the girl's thin form beneath him and the dark mass of tangled hair flowing down her back.

He released her, not wanting to risk another fire. Immediately she stood up, falling over slightly in the process as she tripped over her left foot, still enclosed in a cast and raised her fists warily.

She was wearing grey joggers and an old navy SHIELD T-shirt borrowed from Natasha. Natasha wasn't big but the clothes still hung loosely off Helena's skinny frame.

Helena looked better than when they had first brought her in, the coloured had started to slowly return to her cheeks and she was beginning to put on weight, but her eyes looked just as lost and clouded as ever.

He was starting to severely regret asking JARVIS to be turned off in her room. He hadn't wanted to alarm her again if a disembodied voice started talking to her from the ceiling but it meant that they also risked not hearing immediately from the AI if she had escaped.

What he couldn't understand was how the girl was standing at all, let alone how'd she had made it all the way up here. Admittedly she was shaking slightly from the effort of standing up but last time she had even tried to stand on her own her legs had been too weak and she had crumpled to the floor

"You can walk," he remarked, cocking his head to the side slightly.

"Get out the way," she hissed back, looking ready to pounce.

"But where are you going," he persisted, careful to keep himself between her and the edge of the roof.

"None of your fucking business, just let me go!"

Clint could feel a wave of heat coming off of her and was starting to realise that if he didn't diffuse the situation fast the tower was going to turn into a very large torch.

"You can leave if you really want," Clint replied, careful to hold eye contact to show he wasn't deceiving her, "but I don't think you know where you're going to go once you leave."

She remained where she was, fists still raised, her brown eyes boring into him.

"You know that sooner or later HYDRA is going to come for you again, and that when they do, you will be powerless against them."

"Liar," she spat, although she flinched slightly at the mention of HYDRA.

"We both know you know that's not true," Clint continued, "If you stay with us here, we can offer you protection and a safe place to recover."

"But I don't trust whoever you people are either! How do I know you're not just gonna turn out to be exactly the same, taking advantage of me and what I can do?"

 _Shit_ Clint thought. He hadn't realised Helena still didn't trust them, sure she hadn't talked much, in fact this was the longest conversation he'd had with her, but she had complied with being treated. She must have been planning her escape for a while, complying in order to lead them into a false sense of security and then lying about the regained use of her legs. It all made sense now and he cursed himself for not noticing the clear signs.

She shook her head and tried to push past him, moving towards the edge of the roof.

Clint followed at a safe distant, careful to watch her every move in order to prevent her from actually killing herself.

"You've got no reason to trust us." She whipped around and stared at him, dangerously close to the edge.

"But you will regret leaving, especially when HYDRA comes looking for you. We're not like HYDRA, we fight them in order to prevent the kinda thing that has happened to you. I'm not asking you trust us just yet, all I can give you is my word that we would never intentionally harm you in any way."

She turned to stare out across the glowing lights of New York, listening to the hum of traffic in the streets below.

"I don't trust you," she replied finally and Clint's stomach dropped; but she continued, " I don't trust anyone anymore, but I can't go back to HYDRA."

She raised her head to meet his gaze and for the first time Clint could see the vulnerability in her eyes she normally kept so guarded.

He also noticed the way she was shaking more than she had done before. Whether it was the cold or the effort of standing upright or both of these combined, her actions seemed to have finally caught up with her.

Her eyes widened as she seemed to realise, "Shit," she muttered. Her knees gave way and Clint dived forward just in time to stop her smacking into the ground. He pulled her close to his chest, slid his arm under her knees and easily lifted her off the ground.

Clint quirky crossed the distance to where the door to the stairwell stood ajar and managed to toe it open whilst hopping on his good leg. They had deactivated the lifts on the upper floors incase Helena tried to make a run for it, hoping they would find her in time if she took the stairs.

Clint stared down at the dark stairwell that seemed to never end and sighed. It was never the easy way when it came to him.

 **Well that was bloody long. Hopefully you found that mildly entertaining? Please let me know what you think by kindly reviewing and feel free to leave your thoughts about Endgame. Ive got 3 weeks until my exams end so I won't be updating for a little while but after that the updates will become more regular.**

 **-R**


	11. Pancakes

**Hey! So exams are done FINALLY and that means I have two months of complete freedom so updates will hopefully be quicker, hopefully. Shout out to everyone for following, favouriting and reviewing, I appreciate you guys so much so thank you for supporting me! Anyway...**

By some miracle, Clint managed to make it downstairs, hampered only _slightly_ by his stiff leg and the unconscious girl in his arms. Pausing when he reached his and Natasha's floor, Clint looked down at the girl.

She was still out of it, her forehead resting again his neck and her eyes firmly closed shut.

He knew he should probably take her back to the medical room, the Avengers had agreed that Helena should remain there until she was fully recovered and they somehow managed to convince Fury to allow her to stay permanently in the tower.

But Clint couldn't help but feel that part of the reason Helena didn't trust them was that no matter how they treated her, being surrounded by medical equipment and forced to remain in a room was an all too familiar situation for her. Bruce had filled them in on her extensive amount of injuries including the dissection marks, and Clint was sure that the medical facility was an ever present reminder of HYDRA for the girl.

He sighed, instead angling his feet in the direction of the kitchen. He could do with some coffee and it was a quiet place where Helena wouldn't feel too overwhelmed when she woke up.

Reaching the kitchen, Clint laid slowly laid Helena down on the sofa that sat in lounge area of the kitchen, then busied himself with putting on a pot of coffee. It had been brewing for a couple of minutes before he became aware of a quiet shifting noise from behind him.

He turned to see Helena shuffle slightly then become easily still, eyes still closed, as if pretending to be asleep while assessing her surroundings. It was probably a habit she acquired while living at HYDRA. He watched as two bleary brown eyes slowly blinked open. Almost immediately her gaze was darting around the room, taking in every aspect from the view outside to the brewing coffee, before coming to rest on Clint. He was becoming increasingly aware of her shift shallow breaths and the way she was starting to coil up in the corner of the sofa. Clint pushed away from the counter and steadily approached Helena, careful to keep eye contact, whilst showing his palms to her, demonstrating he was unarmed.

"Hey, you're safe, it's only me and you." Clint watched her eyes as they swivelled once more around the room, just to check he wasn't lying.

He crouched down next to the sofa until he was at eye level with Helena, "You passed out on the roof so I brought you down here to the kitchen."

Helena seemed to relax minutely, seeming to come to the conclusion that he wasn't going to harm her.

The sudden smell of burning coffee invaded Clint's nostrils. He dashed back to the counter and pulled the pot out of the machine. Clint flicked the machine off, not wanting a repeat of the incident which had involved a different burning coffee pot and the fire alarm going off at two in the morning which lead to an evacuation of the entire tower and a very grumpy breakfast the next day.

Clint busied himself with adding an unholy amount of sugar to the fresh coffee before proceeding to drink it directly from the pot.

Turning around Clint found the girl on the sofa staring at him with a mix of confusion and fear. He cocked his head slightly.

"Ever had coffee kid?"

It took her a second to process the question -Clint was starting to second guess his decision of not returning to medical- but seeming to decide he wasn't threatening her, she shakily shook her head.

Clint reached behind him and grabbed one of the mugs that had been washed out and left to dry by the sink. Looking down, he smiled inwardly at the slogan it bore.

"World's best grandpa," printed in black letters. Tony's gift to Steve last year in the team's secret Santa. The captain's face had been a picture when he unwrapped it but whatever Steve said, they all knew he secretly loved it.

Clint filled the mug with steaming coffee and approached the sofa.

"Here," he said holding out the mug for Helena to take it. She stared carefully at the mug for a long time, before studying Clint's face as if looking for any give aways that he may have slipped something into it

Eventually she moves to take the mug from him,"Careful, it's hot," he said as she stretched out two slightly shaking hands.

She paused abruptly at his words, quirking an eyebrow at him. The expression looked natural on her face, much more so than the fear and pain that normally clouded her eyes. "

The unspoken _really? Your speaking to person who can set herself on fire_ went unsaid, but it wasn't needed.

It provided Clint with a fleeting glimpse of a normal, sarcastic, moody teenager who hadn't spent the majority of her life under lock and key being tortured and experimented on.

The look vanished as soon as it has appeared. Helena blinked rapidly, looking slightly confused then reached forwards and took the too hot to hold mug in both hands, cupping it against her chest. She took a quick sniff but didn't drink.

Clint hadn't really expected her to, but she had at least taken the mug.

Helena looked expectantly back up at Clint, her chocolate eyes boring into him, sensing he wanted to question her.

Clint sighed. "D'you mind if I sit?"

Helena visibly tensed but gave no other outward sign that she had registered what he said. After a long pause, she slowly nodded. Clint sat, not missing Helena's subtle attempts to move herself as far away from him as possible.

"So," he asked awkwardly, "we found a device that may have been used for wiping people's memories at the compound and you seemed to respond to a specific set of words, is it possible you were brain washed while at HYDRA? " Helena looked very uncomfortable now, as if she would rather do anything than have this conversation.

But the Avengers hadn't been able to retrieve any files that may have details about Helena and her past due to SHIELD collecting everything left by HYDRA in search of leads that may hint at other similar compounds existing.

They were trying to prevent Fury from taking Helena out of their hands so they couldn't just ask for her file in case as Fury still didn't know her name and the file might contain it somewhere.

So currently they knew absolutely nothing about the girl.

Helena took a deep breath to fortify herself then nodded again.

Clint mirrored her and continued, "Is there any possibility you remember if you had a life before HYDRA, maybe parents or a family?" He had to ask, had to check Helena didn't actually have any living relatives before they took her in.

"No," Helena said bluntly, "My parents are dead, HYDRA killed them." She was staring hard at Clint now, a mix of anger and defiance in her voice. "After they took me, the men told me they'd killed the rest of my family as well."

Clint shook his head in disbelief. The poor kid, how another human being could do that to a child was beyond him.

"Do you know how long you were at HYDRA for?"

Helena tilted her head to the side, "Around ten years, it was hard to keep track."

Clint stared at the girl curled up in the corner of the sofa, coffee mug still clutched in her hands. Ten years, ten years this girl had spent under the wrath of HYDRA, being experimented on and tortured.

To Clint, Helena looked around the age of fifteen, meaning if she really had been with HYDRA for ten years, they'd captured her when she was just five. He didn't even want to think about the things five year old Helena must have seen.

Clint iwas burning to ask what her time at HYDRA had been like, but he knew Helena probably wasn't ready to talk about it yet. When she was ready, he hoped she'd tell in her own time.

Instead, Clint directed his gaze to the window framing the bustling city of New York below. There was a faint glow of light on the horizon. A glance at his watch told him it was 05:45. They were currently at the start of July and a heatwave was just around the corner.

"Want something to eat?"

Helena looked up at him. She hadn't had much of a proper meal since she'd been with them. Too weak to eat that much solid food and Clint was pretty sure she was only pretending to eat the real food given to her. He'd found a lot of dried fruit hidden in odd places around the medical room on his last visit.

Helena didn't move, just continued to look at him with a slightly confused look on her face.

Clint gave up on waiting for answer from the girl and began to search the cupboards for ingredients needed to make pancake batter. Clint then began his well practiced routine of pancake making. His pancakes were a team favourite, not only did they taste amazing - that included the others opinions as well as his - but the process always made for an entertaining show in the morning.

Taking an egg, Clint began to throw and catch it on his spatula, making the egg spin as he threw it higher and higher. He'd learned this particular trick whilst on a mission in Japan.

After a long and tedious fight with quite a few bodyguards, he'd found himself in a small alleyway that housed a dingy yet open Teppanyaki restaurant. He had been the only customer and due to his fascination with the way the chef had cooked his meal in front of him, the man had offered to teach Clint a few tricks.

Clint's broken Japanese had allowed him to understand most of what the chef was telling him and he had spent a very enjoyable hour learning the art of Japanese cooking that involved a lot of cursing and quite a few smashed eggs.

Phil hadn't been best pleased when Clint had arrived back at the safe house two hours later than originally planned, but it had been worth it for the look of shock on his handler's face when Clint proceeded to take all the eggs out of the fridge and throw them about like bouncy balls.

Clint gave the egg one final toss into the air then turned his spatula sideways and caught the it on the metal edge. He watched with satisfaction as the insides trickled out and into the bowl already filled with flour.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Helena watching his actions with interest. Her head was still tilted to the side, as though trying to workout why he was making such a big deal out of cracking an egg.

He then added milk and a little oil to the bowl and began to mix. Now came his favourite part. He flicked on the stove, resting his pan on the hob and pouring a decent amount of batter into the frying pan. He let it sit for a minute before grabbing the pan and beginning to shake it slightly to dislodge the pancake.

He held the current record for most consecutive flips, with Natasha coming just shy of his total of 57- he'd only dropped the pancake because Tony had taken that moment to make himself yet another cup of coffee and had 'accidentally' bumped into Clint on the way over.

Clint's current goal was seeing how many flips he could get in a single toss. Last time he had attempted this had resulted in a lot of half formed pancakes stuck to the ceiling.

He threw the current pancake into the air. It flipped twice in midair then landed almost perfectly back in the pan, if not a little torn.

Clint could still see Helena's orb like brown eyes staring avidly at his actions from behind his back. He hoped one day he'd be able to teach her how to cook her own breakfast. But for now, he let her be, allowing her to just enjoy the spectacle.

A couple of minutes and only one ruined pancake later, a stack of warm, delicious pancakes sat on the counter in the kitchen.

Clint jerked his head in Helena's direction.

"C'mon," he said, indicating a stool.

Helena stood up, her hand clutched tightly around the end of the sofa, a small tremor still visible in her legs. Clint watched her slow and painful process as she half walked, half limped toward the counter.

Helena slid slowly into the stool and surveyed the toppings Clint had set out for her.

Chocolate spread, sugar and maple syrup, as well as a couple of strawberries and half a lemon.

She surveyed the feast before her then looked back up at Clint, as if asking what the hell she was supposed to do now.

Clint sighed.

"Watch," he said, grabbing another plate.

He had plucked the top pancake off the top of the pile and began to lather it with a thick layer of chocolate spread. He added a couple of chopped strawberries then proceeded to role up the pancake and take a bite.

Helena didn't move. Great.

"I promise I haven't poisoned it," Clint held up his hands in surrender, "look, if I wanted to kill you I would have already done it by now."

Clint knew that definitely wasn't very reassuring to someone who was probably used to death threats all time but Helena seemed to actually relax slightly.

She leaned forward tentatively, taking a long look over the food before her. Eventually she slid the second pancake onto her plate and copied Clint's actions, except for taking a bite.

Helena turned her light brown eyes on Clint once more. He felt like she was looking through him to his very core, her gaze continuously roaming over his face.

After a long silence, she picked up the pancake and took a bite.

Instant pleasure took over her carefully schooled expression for a fleeting moment. It was like someone had turned a light on inside of her. Clint couldn't help but internally jump for joy at the sight of her actually enjoying herself for once.

But as fast as the moment had come, it was over. Helena's features had returned to the constant blank face she wore. The mask was back.

But it felt like a milestone had been reached for Clint. There was still a girl inside, and that was what mattered.

After that they made quick work of the pancakes. Clint realised that Helena tended to copy him with each different flavour he chose. Clint therefore tried all of his favourite combinations, allowing Helena the chance to experience them all too. She seemed to particularly enjoy the maple syrup one that went down a lot faster than the others.

The sky outside had lightened as they sat and ate to reveal a glorious summers morning.

The two were just finishing their last pancakes when Helena suddenly tended beside him, it took him slightly longer until Clint was also aware of a pair of footsteps making their way towards them.

Clint listened. Close together and dragging slightly, uncaring of any noise being made, definitely Tony.

Clint's suspicions were confirmed when the man rounded the corner with hair that stuck up at odd angles. He was wearing an old black sabbath T-shirt that had holes in several places and odd socks. No guesses as to where Tony had been all night then.

They needed to find a way to lock his and Bruce's lab without either of them knowing so that maybe once the man would get a proper nights sleep.

"Mornin' Legolas," Tony said with a yawn and a half wave in Clint's direction. He didn't seem to notice Helena who was sitting ram rod straight in her chair, surveying Tony with nervous kind of curiosity.

"'Sup tin can." It was their usual greeting. Tony replaced the coffee pot in the machine and flicked it on, he paused and sniffed the air.

"You making pancakes bird boy?"

He turned, bleary eyes first landing on Clint next to the finished plate of pancakes, then slid onto Helena. Tony's eyes widened, his mouth falling open slightly, as he looked from Helena to Clint and back again.

Helena stared back, wide eyed. She hadn't actually met Tony yet as the only times he had visited her were when she was unconscious in order to not cause any alarm to the girl. Helena was also supposed to be resting in the medical wing, not eating pancakes in the early hours of the morning.

It was Tony that recovered first. He blinked a couple of times, gave himself a shake then opened his mouth, "So fireball, you like pancakes?"

Clint breathed a quiet sigh of a relief. He was grateful to Tony for not questioning why Helena was out of bed. It demonstrated to the girl he wasn't a hostile force and the team weren't making Helena doing anything against her will, and the quicker she learned to trust them the better.

Helena looked confused for a moment, as if she couldn't quite out if this strange man was addressing her. After seeming to decide he was she replied warily, "alright."

Clint made a face of mock outrage, he turned to Tony who was wearing an equally fake look of shock.

Tony placed his hand over his heart, "only 'alright'? M'lady, you have just consumed the finest pancakes in all of New York ."

Silence fell as the two men continued to look outrageously offended and Helena just stared at them, probably unsure of whether they were being serious. After what felt like a lifetime, the ghost of what could have been a smirk flitted across Helena's face as she mumbled a quick "sorry."

Clint tutted loudly and turned his head away, pretending to fake sob into his hand in order to hide his grin. Tony patted him on the back and said in a soothing voice, "why don't you make us some more, there's a dear, I would definitely appreciate some pancakes right now."

Clint nodded miserably, making a great deal of wiping his 'tears' away before moving over to the counter and beginning to pull out more eggs.

"Well that was quite the performance," came an exasperated voice from the doorway.

 **And there you have it! This chapter didn't really go where I expected or hoped I guess but oh well. I have no idea why half of it is just talking about pancakes but there you are. Please review if you have the time it would be greatly appreciated! Also feel free to guess who the 'voice' is...**


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